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Protect Plants

resres Posts: 61
in Problem solving
Is there a product to spray/apply on plants to deter the public touching/damaging your plants - believe WD40 or vaseline would burn and or stop growth?
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Posts

  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    Any petroleum-based product would kill whatever part of the leaf it was put on - so rule that one out.
    A sign would be less toxic
    Something like - EXTREMELY POISONOUS PLANTS - DO NOT TOUCH should do it

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    edited May 2022
    Why are people touching your plants, are they coming into your garden?
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    Are you selling plants?
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Plant tough or prickly things near the front border if the problem is people reaching over and picking flowers/breaking bits off.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • resres Posts: 61
    Planted laurels at edge of boundary to form a hedge though has took 5 years as under trees; guy turns up last night with his child kicking a ball and gets his child to snap them?!
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    I do share your frustration.
    I have a beautiful mature acer in my front garden.
    I was doing some washing up sometime in December and I noticed a group of school kids walking by.
    One of them just reached into my garden and snapped quite a decent size branch and left it hanging (why for god's sake?????!!). I later pruned it off properly.
    For best part of 2 months the tree bled sap onto the low boundary wall, so much so that it eventually formed a 3" stalagmite of sap.
    The leaves on that part of the tree are tiny this year compared to the rest.

    I also planted hundreds of crocus on the boundary between my house and next door - every day the postman and numerous leaflet delivery people tread on them, so many of them have been crushed leaving bare patches.

    I should have planted pyracantha all over my front garden!!

    If you find a solution please let me know!
    Laurels are really tough though so they should recover.
    The leaves of cherry laurel also contain cyanide - so maybe that sign is not such a daft idea :)
    Good luck


    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    @res That's bad but sadly what seems to happen. I have heard a  parent blaming a teacher rather than admit their child had done something wrong. I would add that any child of mine who had messed about with laurel would be sent off to wash their hands!
    The one positive is that laurel is tough, if you cut a stem it will regrow twice at that point. So if you just trim up the broken stems that should help. 
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    @Pete.8 I had lost count of how many time someone backed onto my front garden. I have now planted Rubus cockburnianus, it 's white stems in the winter seems to have worked.
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340
    GardenerSuze said:
    @Pete.8 I had lost count of how many time someone backed onto my front garden. I have now planted Rubus cockburnianus, it 's white stems in the winter seems to have worked.
    Good idea - I was thinking of nettles, brambles and pyracantha - and an electric fence! :)
    My road is quite narrow and I've lost count of the number of front walls that have been knocked down when big Amazon vans try and turn around - thankfully mine is unscathed so far

    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • GardenerSuzeGardenerSuze Posts: 5,692
    It is common to see a bored child pulling at plants, sometimes they have no idea they are doing it. It often happens when adults are busy talking! 
    I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
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