I don't blame you! Just this evening, a friend was telling about an elderly lady who brought a tree branch to a gathering and wanted to know what it was. The friend asked where she'd got it from, and the woman said from the "edge" of someone's property. No - she went right up to the linden tree on the front lawn and broke off a branch!!

It's so disheartening. Someone stole the lilies out of my garden along the front sidewalk, five years in a row until I dug them up and moved them further into the yard. Nobody comes into the yard to steal it seems, so I'm in the process of moving the flower beds back off the sidewalk.

I've had newly planted peonies, irises and daylillies taken from my front and back gardens! If they are not in the yard where the dogs are, I guess others think they can just help themselves. The worst part is I find thenm in the theives yard 2 days later! The noive of some peoples kids!!

Ginny

Ha, I remember when I used to live downtown, I walked past a house where the guy had a big sign begging that whoever stole his plants the first time please not steal them again.

Wow, I never knew theft was so common. I guess it's not the old days anymore. I once had some plastic greenhouses (the cheap stuff that you can pop up as shelters over plants) stolen from my back yard! Who would even take the risk for that?!
Luckily, I haven't had any veggie or fruit thefts yet.

David, isn't Peace River a small community? Or is it Grande Prairie you're in, well that's small too. I'm surprised someone would be brazen enough to try that.

Yes, I live in Peace River. The couple was driving a RV, so it's possible that they were visiting when they decided to engage in a little dine & dash.

I know, I'll surround my Nanking cherries with Devil's club and stinging nettles next year! Okay, I won't do that, but it sure would be tempting...

I'm wondering what kind of a neighbour you have.

I assume they know it's your tree, so why would they give permission?

I would have told the thieves they should keep their paws off unless the true owner gave them the go ahead.

And.......if I saw someone doing that to my neighbour's tree, I'd stop them, not encourage them!

When I had Nanking cherries the only thieves I saw were robins. The robins loved those things...

That's the scum of society!
Many years ago, ..had Evans cherry thieves on the acreage, some I have growing along the road, ..this I didn't mind, but some I had far inside my property, had the ladder ready for next day,...all gone! All others in another place gone too.

Several years back,..
have a nice large Saskatoon berry near the road, put manure on it and look forward for the harvest, when I come next day all gone,...wasn't birds, grass all trampled down.

Maybe they were really big birds! LOL We have robins in the Saskatoon bush too - i was watching them just a few minutes ago. I think they stripped the Nanking bush too - there weren't enough this year to do anything with anyway.

That's why I got rid of the Saskatoon bush in town,..bird pressure is way too high for berry bushes, out in the country I don't have this kind of problem because there is allot of bushes and other berries, I've never seen birds on my Nanking. I've seen Waxwing eating green Evans cherry, never on the red one's, it seems then, they favor other fruits.

I have had Irises stolen the very night after I planted them.

Only the Robins have been a problem of late.
At one garden a couple of Hawks nest in a very large Elm tree, so, praise the Lord, I see very few Robins there but at the other garden they red vermin may find themselves dying of lead poisoning if they get much worse.
I have already destroyed nests that they were dumb enough to put on the one porch.
I used to let them be till they started eat so many raspberries. This year we got to eat zero.

I have three cats but the youngest ones are as stupid as the average American youth and the oldest one seems to have the-- been there done, that attitude.

I agree with the robin problem. They have destroyed the strawberries this year. It is so frustrating, they take a nibble out of the biggest most glorious strawberry and then move onto the next. Every morning there is damage. And the patch was just starting to take off this year. The hubby was going to weld me metal frames with chicken wire around it but didn't get around to it this winter. Too bad no strawberries for him. C

I am so slow I read this thread yesterday and thought of my bad teenage years when I used to sneak out and raid gardens. (throw stones here) but decided not to comment. Today my brain kicked into gear and thought of the perfect thing to do if you catch someone in the act. Nonchalantly walk up to them pick up the container they are picking into and say thank-you you don't know how much I have been needing someone to pick those for me then walk away with the goods.

LMAO! Perfect! BTW, I raided gardens when I was a kid too. Usually the wonderful one next door since she always had the best peas! I think she planted them for us. :) I sure hope that dear lady has a wonderful garden on the other side with no bugs on her roses and no weeds!

Ginny

Well I grew up in a neighborhood where we literally had free range.
We grabbed some apples and from one fellow who never seemed to mind a carrot or-- to show how brave we were, onions.
We ate them raw and stifled the misery to show how brave we were.
Of course, in those days, neighbors had full permission to deal out what ever punishment we deserved, before we got home and got it again.

One of my dummy boys, they are both black so I cannot tell which is which actually killed and ate the head off of a young Robin today.
I thought some thing was odd when he acted skittish and did not let me get close.
I had to clean up the body and feathers and puke, at the foot of our bed.
There is hope.

OK -- this is getting ridiculous! I returned home from a trip this afternoon to find my apple tree (Parkland), which *had* been loaded with just-ripe supermarket-sied fruit, completely bare. My partner had kept this unhappy surprise from me, as he didn't want to hear me rant over the phone. He said that the fruit napping was a daytime affair and must have taken place in a two- or three- hour window. I can't believe that this has happened again! I suspect it was kids this time, as I found apple halves around the tree (unless the deer have grown hands, in which case I have bigger problems than fruit napping). I salvaged six bruised fruit that had fallen into the tomatoes. Argh! This year has just been a disaster for fruit growing.

David, that's crazy. People are pretty braisen that's for sure. When I first moved in this place several years ago, I had a berry garden, full of strawberries and raspberries. One day I came home from work to find an elderly couple that I never met - in my berry garden picking everything clean. They waived and smiled at me and continued to do their picking. They had to come inside my yard, climb up stairs and open a gate to get in the yard...not like they were accessible from over the property line. I was just stunned....I stood there dumbfounded for a minute and then decided to talk to them about it. They didn't think I was going to use them. I politely explained that I fully intended to use them and it's always best to ask before assuming. I think they were so used to getting their way...because they were so charming :)

That is awful I'd be checking with neighbors to see if they saw anything. Sorry for your loss :(

Wow, the only incident I remember was as a kid when some hooligans vandalized the garden. I was pretty small at the time and they did it at night. Now, people just let the fruit rot on the tree. I pick a dozen apple crabs a day that fall onto my shed from the neighbours. All waste for the ants and wasps. Reasoning with renters is a lost cause.

And if it wasn't for asking owners around the area to pick fruit I can list off another 6 locations that would let the fruit become feed for the birds.

All I can say is it might be time to invest in a dog...