Vandalism!
Boater
Posts: 241
Got home tonight and went to unload my car and realized that my garden had been vandalized during the day or evening.
The pea sticks have been pulled out and strewn across the lawn - the peas are already finished and I have been meaning to take them down, but I had put some pots and a seed tray containing some radishes I had about given up on in between them and they were also strewn across the lawn. The spinach and radishes in the same raised bed have all been pulled up (no sign of them). The Chicken wire cover I put over my strawberries to keep the cats off is lying up against the fence and at least one strawberry plant has been pulled up and there are strawberry leaves all over the lawn. The carrots I was growing in a compost bag on the coal bunker have all been pulled out and the pots that were behind it are spread all over the lawn. Some of the slats from one of my compost bins are also laying on the lawn.
There were only about a dozen carrots, maybe 2 dozen radishes and a dozen spinach plants (which were starting to fade anyway) so the value of damage is very small but it is incredibly annoying.
I have been meaning to build a bigger fence up the back because there is a group of 3 small kids who keep climbing over (I suspect it was them or their ringleader that has done the damage, although I haven't seen them for a while and couldn't prove anything). A bigger fence might stop them for a while but it's impossible to make the garden secure, for part of one side my boundary is a retaining wall about 2m high in places, lower in others, so people can jump down into the garden quite easily, and I doubt if I would be allowed to put a fence on top of that?
What would you do?
Posts
That is terrible lots of prickly plant could help like pansyface said try roses and holly
Its not so much the damage done but the fact that someone has been in whilst you were out. My parents were burgled some years ago and thats how my mum looked at it. They got a German Shepherd dog after that, on the Policemans recomendation, he said they always turn a blind eye to dogs molesting burglars!
Prickly bushes are the thing for unruly kids.
Sorry to hear about your problems Boater, it's really upsetting when your bit of the world is invaded. You're right Lyn, when we were burgled the police said to forget the alarm and get a big dog. Prickly bushes are also a good thing, I can recommend berberis, I have one by my path! A big patch of stinging nettles might also work, if you have the room.
Oh what a shame! Sorry to hear that. I agree with the suggestions of prickly plants and nettles etc. But also, have a word with your Neighbourhood Policeman, it's what he/she is for. While the children are young there's a chance to influence them by the police giving a talk at their school etc, and walking around talking to parents - whereas if the damage was done by teenage louts things like that don't sway them, in fact it probably makes them worse.
And what about some Anti-climb paint? Contrary to popular opinion it is legal to use it as long as you conform to certain stipulations https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q726.htm , and in fact just putting the warning signs up might be enough to keep some people away.
It's sad - when I was a child I lived in the middle of nowhere, and spent my days exploring, taking risks, making camps, damming ditches and doing all sorts of stuff and no one bothered me because the area was wild. Children don't get enough 'wild' nowadays
Good luck
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Oh Boater I am so sorry to read your post. As it will take some time unless you can afford big prickly bushes to establish maybe you could install a security camera even if a dummy one and that may put them off
Pea shooters in my day!!
We have that Berberis around our oil tank, Police said even if they break into it, they will certainly leave some DNA.
WE had some difficulties with some youths - squeezed tomato ketchup all over our caravan, and trample od garden. A word with the Communitty police person soon put an end to it - she knew who it would be and challenged them
Seek out you community police person or whatever they are called - they will deal with it.
Oh and take photos!!!
Not at this house I must add
Thanks for the ideas folks.
The current fence at the back is a low 3-bar job that most adults could step over, I was trying to train some shrubbery along it but I now realise it is elderberry so that won't really work. The area has several quite big trees (all planted too close and growing through each other), in between is mostly covered in brambles and there is a holly bush back there already, although not at the fence line. I was going to plant a hawthorn hedge, but I understand they are quite slow growing? Also there is a mature Sycamore in the middle of the fence line so impossible to plant very close to it....
It's difficult to describe the garden, there is a retaining wall down the side with council land level with the top of it, and my garden up to 1.8m below, but the wall stops 8m from the hospital fence and there is a steep bank behind the garage and across the back as it rises to the council level. It is right at the back of the low fence where the kids climb over.
I'm pretty sure I can erect a 1.8m fence in place of the low fence (pretty sure it's primary age kids so that will stop them along there), maybe try to get some prickly hedging to grow in the shade behind it. I'm just not sure what I do to stop them jumping down from the retaining wall into the gap between it and my garage (or onto my garage roof - I've had to chase them off there before, although not for a few years) I've been encouraging brambles and a dog rose along the top of the wall - although the council could decide to come and cut it all back at any time.
I'll need to contact planning and see what my options are for the wall, I might be allowed to put a fence on top of it, but it might affect the structure of the wall and I definitely can't afford to have that rebuilt!
I am a dog lover but I don't have time to look after a dog so a dog is out of the question, otherwise I would have got one long ago to solve the cat problem!
There is one particular kid whom I suspect, he had a couple of friends the first time I sent him packing but I'm sure it was one of them came up and told me he had been in my garden another time. I don't know where he lives, maybe only a few doors down, or maybe it's his gran who is a few doors down, but if I see him out with his mum or gran in the near future I'll stop and ask if it was him. It is school holidays here so it would make sense if it is his gran that lives near and looks after him in the holidays... I don't think I've seen him around since term started.
Berberis look bushier than Hawthorn and more shade tolerant.
if its your land (or your land lord is ok with it) you can put up a 6 foot fence without planning permission