Garden Thief

When we returned from Texas last weekend we discovered that the tomato plants at our garden had grown out of control even though we thought we were on top of it this year.  Those two monster trees on the right had tipped over and pulled their cages with them. Justin made these fences for them and they better shape up now!  I'm really glad we only planted four plants this year.  There are alot of tomatoes on them.  The one on the right is a cherry tomato plant, the two in the middle are large "beef" variety tomatoes and the one on the left is a grape tomato plant with yellow tomatoes.  

 

Ben has been pretty good while we work on the garden.  We usually leave him the vehicle (with AC on of course) until he gets mad and then we let him out.  Of course, he tries to run through other people's plots and all that but he rally likes to sit at the picnic tables which is really funny.  He just climbs up there and hangs out.  Here, if you can see it, he is playing with some dandelion stems.  I think he eventually ate them.  It is probably the only thing he ate that day!  His eating has been pretty nonexistent this week and we discovered that he has a front bottom tooth (the fourth) and also several molars coming in at the same time.  the canines are not popping up yet though!  Hopefully this is the cause of his...well...I can't say LOSS of appetite because he never had one to begin with...

 

I went to the garden to water yesterday afternoon and was really pissed off to discover that there were three onions pulled from the ground.  Someone had stolen them and broke the tops off and left them laying there.  REALLY JERKS?  Yeah, it's just some stupid undersized onions but why does someone have to do that?  And if they were going to steal anything why didn't they take some blasted zucchini instead?  At first the compassionate side of me thought, "maybe they can't afford food".  Then I realized that is crap.  Onions are not a food that you eat whole to fill yourself with sustenance.  They are an extra used for flavor (or onion rings).   If I were stealing food I would be ashamed and grab what I needed and then take off and not stand there taking care to remove the leaves from the top and neatly leave them laying there for everyone to see. 

 

I am still pretty offended by this, mostly because I'm worried it will keep happening and there is no way to stop it.  It's not about saving money by not buying those items in the store for us.  It is more about the time we spend taking care of it so we can enjoy what we've grown.  It never happened last year but our plot is on the edge so a person would come upon it right away and it is well weeded so it is easy to see what we have.  Possibly someone thought that "Community Gardens" meant that the community can help themselves which is wrong.  There is a large "Hunger Free" garden on the premises which is for everyone to share but that one is clearly marked with signs and fencing.  So, I hope whoever did this really enjoys those onions.  A-holes.