Hey folks. I have planned to make a big garden this year, actually had it plowed already and it is quite a bit bigger than any I've had before. However, I've had several folks tell me that I should have put it closer to my house because people will steal from it! Do you think this is a real threat? Do any of you have any experience with that kind of thing in town? I know that people steal from corn fields (shame on them, too!) but from a home garden?
I'm going to plant it anyhow and hope for the best. We actually plan to have our garden in a different spot in the future, but can't put it there until we've done a bit more cleanup & rearranging on our lot.
Now, there's a girl after my own heart --- plannin' on springtime already!
Joanna, may I be first to order a dozen ears of corn and a couple of those big tomatoes?
Mmmmm.
No worries, friend. You've got a great guard dog and two ferocious felines keeping an eye on things (I didn't count Puppy...she's not up to warding off intruders...just too friendly, ya know?). I think I'd be more concerned about deer, rabbits and squirrels. Did you know squirrels will eat tomatoes that are just beginning to ripen on the vine? Wouldn't have believed it myself until I witnessed it.
We're in your neighborhood - and although we haven't had a garden for a couple of years, we've never had a problem with people stealing from it. We've had two different locations for our gardens. One was close by the house, where our dogs are. The other garden, however, was on the west end of the property. If we lost produce, it was so small we didn't notice it.
Enjoy your garden!
True, true. The Wild Kitties will surely discourage anyone with bad intent. If nothing else, theives won't want to go walking through any of the dirt those two have dug in recently! HA! (Yes, they are still The Wild Kitties; even though Clay has named them Lester & Fifi; and we've had them to the vet several times for shots and neutering; and they sleep on the back porch in a basket with a pillow; and they knock on the door if we don't get up to feed them early enough in the mornings.)
Now Rudy's made me so hungry for a home-grown ripe tomato I dont' know if I'll be able to sleep. Oh, woe is me!
Thanks for the input, Mom70x7. I can't imagine it would be a problem either, but the "Friends and family" I hang out with take great delight in teasing & tormenting me... I can never be sure if they are making something up to get me flustered or not. We'll just plant what we want to plant according to how good the weather cooperates this spring. Besides, there are so many people by there all times of night & day filling water tanks, they need something interesting to look at. I'm thinking about some Burma Shave type signs too... Hmmm...
It would take some kind of gall to pick something from another person's yard; but I remember that as kids one year my baby brother went to the neighbor's house and picked a tulip to give Mom on Mother's day. He got to do some extra chores to make it up to her later, but Mom and the neighbor lady both thought it was so sweet, they couldn't get too upset. He couldn't have been more than 3 at the time.
Soooo----- ::) ::) ::) What's your address?? Hmmm??? ;D ;D
I know I know~~~I know where she lives~~~
((hunting for my camo paint and clothes and tomato and watermelon bag))
;D
Now that's just not fair!! I won't tell on you Teresa if you split the loot! (Now I hope that nobody really raids her watermelon patch! We will be blamed! :angel: :angel: )
Come reeeal close and I will whisper it in your ear.....((((((((( now don't tell anyone sixdogsmom, but she lives right across the street (west) form the north park in Howard.)))))))))
Remember now.. not a word about this to ANYONE... :angel: * or I won't share the "loot".
Keeeewwwllllllll!! ;D ;D
Since Joanna is taking orders, I would like a handful of freshly picked peas, unshelled, so I can again have the experience of popping the shells and eating the peas. Also, about 6 beets, a quart of freshly picked green beans and all the sweet corn that she can spare.
Alright you guys! I've got my eye on you now! Okay, I may lose sight of you with the camo and all, but I'll know where you go to roost! ;D
Looking at my garden list, I may need to come have the rest of the yard plowed too; how will I ever fit all these delicious things in that measly little spot??? Oh my! :o
Now here's the truth, I love to garden, but have mostly only grown tomatoes & peppers before, and green onions of course (all those fancy schmancy cooking shows call them scallions). So, I may call on you for gardening tips later. My dad grows great cucumbers and I can copy his climbing fence thing for that. I have grown other stuff off and on, one year we even planted eggplant, but only used it for decoration. I'm not sure of corn, I'm thinking it belongs out on a farm since it takes so much room...of course I do have that north half of the block I could get plowed... I LOVE fresh peas, but haven't had much experience with growing them, and my favorite is green beans. Oh, now I'm hungry again!
My garden area is so hard and rocky that I finally gave up hoeing last year and made garden boxes. (More use for those extra porch boards from the old house.) Hauling the dirt into the boxes was long, hard work (one bucket at a time), but it seemed to work well. It all started when the little soil I had hoed, washed away in our flood. My poor tomatoes were barely holding on with their little roots. But I put the boxes around them and filled them up with dirt and they took off. Did you know you can bury a tomato plant deeper than the bottom leaves and they will still grow? This year EVERYTHING gets planted in garden boxes, and it will also reduce the amount of hoeing I have to do. Or bending over to pick weeds and veggies. My dad is thinking about using big tractor tires for my grandma's garden this year.
We set out about four tomato plants last year, and something just ate them all off. So, I bought a couple of "patio" tomato plants. (Much to Bob's chagrin, because they were kind of costly!) After the summer, I moved them from the patio to the area where they would get sunshine and water once in a while, and, I'm still picking a small tomato off once in a while! Of course, no more than they produced, it did make each tomato pretty expensive! I remember looking at the pictures of Jo and Fred's tomatoes last summer, and I "drooled!" Sometimes we have a good tomato crop, sometimes we don't!
Tomatoes were the one thing my husband could raise easily and he couldn't plant just one or two plants. You know, just enough for fresh tomatoes. He had to plant enough to feed the whole county. Luckily, tomatoes were one of the easiest things for me to can and we always had plenty of them.
As to people helping themselves to your produce, it does happen. We had planted a garden at a house we had bought but hadn't yet moved into. We had about 5 rows of green beans and when we went to pick them, one of the middle rows had been picked clean. We wouldn't have noticed if they had skipped around here and there, but for one whole row to be clean was clearly suspicious. We had our suspicions as to who had done it but it wouldn't have done any good to say anything. Besides they probably heard that we knew that someone had been there, anyway.
It's a little hard to believe, but there is an area here in Escondido where there's a "Community Garden." People are somehow allowed to use a spot of land to plant flowers, or vegetables. They tend to their own gardens, and I have never heard of there being a problem with people helping themselves to someone else's vegetables. We also have fruit trees that are pretty much along the roads, and seldom ever do people stop and pick the fruit, that doesn't belong to them. Of course, in the groves, there are people who will illegallyl pick the Avocados or fruit and make themselves some money by selling them. I am naive enough to think that the majority of people are basically honest! Probably, that's because I'm from Kansas!
Only a certain part of Kansas, Bonnie. I still have a lot of Sedgwick County paranoi. I don't leave my doors unlocked when I am not home and my car doesn't set in the yard unlocked. My garage is locked unless someone is in it. Not the typical Elk County behaviour.
Wilma, I know a person has to take smart precautions, and not "invite" trouble. When I was working at the Wild Animal Park, our guests were always losing something of value to them, and I don't recall a time when someone, either a guest or an employee, didn't find it and turn it in to security. When the person called in to report it being lost, they would be so happy to hear that it had been found, and turned in. And, I read about and hear about people accidently leaving their billfolds in a shopping cart when they unload their groceries, and someone will find it and turn it in. I think there are a lot of really good, honest people out there, and it gives us all "hope!"
There are many more good people than bad. We just hear more about the bad. And with my paranoi, it would be the bad that would find my billfold.
I guess the moral of that story is just to "hang on to your billfold!" I have always been a bit paranoid about losing my purse, or especially my billfold! One time when my Mother was coming out to visit us, we met her at the airport in San Diego, and everyone had to say "hi," and all. Mother sat down for a little while for everyone to greet her, and darned if she and we didn't go off and leave her purse sitting there, in the airport. Mother had about $300.00 in cash just laying on top of the other things in her purse. When we got home and she discovered she didn't have her purse, we got on the telephone and after several attempts, we finally reached security at the airport, and.....someone had turned her purse in, and everything was there! Now, that's a "happy story!" My husband and my son-in-law hopped in the car and drove right back down to the airport, and Mother was just so happy! We all were.
Tuesday morning I had to take my lab to the vet for a check up. I put my purse, her lease and choker chain on the trunk of the car while I opened the gates. I came back got in my car and headed out and forgot all about them. I did not realise what I had done until I got the vet's. I rushed the dog in and started home, looking for any sign of my things. I pulled in the drive, pulled out the cell phone to call the bank and there was a message from a man who had already found my things and had been by my house, but I wasn't home yet. He and his wife even brought them back to my house as it was easier than arranging a place to meet. They saw my things laying in the middle of a busy street here, 3 blocks from my home. They turned around, went back and jumped out in the traffice and got the leash, chain, my purse, wallet, check book and Palm Pilot. Unfortunately the Palm was ran over. But hey, not having to make all those calls, get new cards, etc. What a blessing. Even though we have more crime here, we still have a lot of that good old country values. I feel very blessed this week.
God bless those good people! Did you see the movie, "Pay it Forward?"
I'll bet you do a lot of good things for other people, too, don't you, Roma Jean? My husband and I always thought if we did something for someone that some day it would be our turn to be helped and it was.
I did see Pay It Forward and believe in that. I have to say, that I do always try to help if I can. I have found things and returned them, etc. and I do believe that does give one good Karma that I find I often need for myself. Again, it goes back to those good old country/small town values. "If it isn't yours, find out who it belongs to and give it back." I think that is the way most of us on this forum were raised.
What wonderful people they were to get your property back to you. What a blessed day for you, Roma Jean.
Are the rest of you going gaa-gaa over the seed catalogs like I am? I really can't complain about our weather so far, but those beautiful photos of veggies and fruit really make me feel good.
Speaking of movies, I highly recommend "The Bucket List." It's right up there with "Pay It Forward" which I enjoyed so much.
Several people here in the park have been to see The Bucket List --- I have heard rave reviews about it. I plan to see it.
I am going to wait until it comes out on DVD to watch it. Now the seed catalogs, I have been looking and decide to order a package of Beef stake Tomatoes and Holyhock seeds (for Mother). I saw two Robins yesterday and a sea gull today. So I know the Spring is just around the corner. I want to see green grass and leaves on trees.
I have "The Bucket List" on my NetFlix list, it shows "A long wait," but, it'll be available "one of these days." I think the two best movies we've seen from our NetFlix orders are "Facing the Giants," and "the Ultimate Gift."
I also heard how good "The Bucket List" movie is.