to not think it's ok to steal my food!

[SpamMarie]

I have a lovely garden, in which I grow veg and maintain fruit trees. I spend a lot of time and effort on this. The garden is on my land, and none of the fruit trees overhang on to public land.

Today I go to the plum tree at the very bottom of the garden, which two days ago was brimming with plums. At least 80% have gone! The only ones left are damaged or not yet ripe. I am LIVID! How dare people come on to my land and help themselves to my food? I wouldn't walk into your kitchen and steal from your fridge!

What on earth can I do? Spend loads of £ on gates and locks? There's no way of accidentally wandering into it either, it's walled at the front and although there's no gate at the back, we live on a dead end, and it is very obviously a private garden.

I'm so annoyed at the thought of someone wandering around my garden and stealing my fruit. BAH!

[DooinMeCleanin]

Are you sure it was not birds? My Gran used to a have plum tree. It was no effort at all, it just grew lots of yummy plums each year. Too many most years, we had all kinds of plum jams and puddings to use them up.

[LetThereBeRock]

YANBU. I hate thieves. I'm sorry that all your hard work has been for nothing.

[southeastastra]

i noticed people doing this in someone's garden the other day, was blatent, wonder if some people realise it's stealing

[SpamMarie]

No, the birds peck and leave bits of fruit on. There was NOTHING left. They had been picked.

[DooinMeCleanin]

Put a tresspassers will be prosecuted sign up and see if that works.

[ViviPru]

This is fascinating - do you really think its people, not birds? I was hopping when the scrap men sent down the side passage and took the old oven - I'd FREAK if I thought people were actually coming IN the garden. Seriously - you really think its people that are doing this?

[LaurieFairyCake]

If it's walled and has fences then someone must have known it's a private garden.

For people like that you can do nothing, for anyone who's just a bit of a numpty put up a sign saying 'Private' on any gate they have come in. Then it will be ultra-obvious.

[SpamMarie]

The plum tree does not take so much maintenance it is true, but the idea of someone letting themselves right into my garden makes me upset. And a lot of the other things we grow do take a lot of maintenance. Thankfully the veggie patches have been left unscathed, aparently our theives do not have a taste for spinach and carrots.

I realised the same thing has happened to my fig tree. It is BARE.

[ViviPru]

Sorry cross post. Well in that case thats mentile. YANBU. It'd turn me into a massive garden vigilante spy.

[EndoplasmicReticulum]

Get a big, slavering dog. Leave it in the garden.

[bigTillyMint]

That's horrid.

Is the garden very visible to passers-by, or would it have to be someone in the know?

[SnapesMistress]

Put up a sign mentioning trespassing and theft?

[LetThereBeRock]

Whether it required a lot of work or not to grow the fruit doesn't really matter,the fruit belonged to the OP not anyone else.

I can't understand how anyone could do this and feel no shame.

[going]

Put up a sign asking people not to pinch your fruit.

[kenobi]

As well as no trespassing, a sign saying 'CCTV in operation here' www.safetyshop.com/products/productdetail.asp?ProductCode=CTV14 should put the wind up people. Yours for a fiver.

[Lotkinsgonecurly]

You need plum cam.!

[SpamMarie]

The garden is pretty visible as it's on a main road on one side, however the entrance isn't. The entrance is round the back of a row of houses, down a private road. There really should never be anybody there that doesn't live there or isn;t making a delivery. I'm hoping it wasn't one of my neighbours, but I sadly wouldn't be surprised. Oddly, the plum tree is one of the least visible trees of all. But it does make the most delicious plums. Sigh.

I honestly think a sign wouldn't make difference. If anything, it would draw people's attention in.

[agedknees]

Put a notice and a honesty box beside your plum tree. It might make people think twice about stealing your fruit.

YANBU.

[ViviPru]

Plum cam! haha! I don't think its the plumscrumpery I'd be as upset with as the thought of plebians poking round my garden. URGH. Vote #2 for the dog.

[SpamMarie]

The thing that really pisses me off is I give lots of home grown food away. I promised my colleagues some plums (they love them) and now I cannot give them away because they were stolen. I know if this were the worst thing to ever happen to me, I would live a pretty blessed existence, but it has really, really annoyed me. People are just so thoughtless!

[ViviPru]

You have a very nice attitude. These revolting individuals will get theirs - preferably dicky plum tummy.

[Jugglingjemima]

YANBU

The honesty box sounds like a good idea to me, in the hope that people who have so sense of not stealing other peoples' property might think twice. If they can read.

[SpamMarie]

It is crawling with wasps, so I hope they washed them first.

[kenobi]

If you put up a CCTV sign it won't alert people to the plums, just worry them that their plumscrumpery will be caught on camera

(she says, sticking determinedly to her idea)

[VelvetSnow]

Install a sign saying:

If you find your gums round my plums there'll be trouble