Pity to find a troll but please do carry on enjoying this forum. The etiquette is simply to be polite and helpful and friendly as you would anywhere else. You'll make friends and have a laugh whilst learning more about plants and gardening. Lots to like here.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
When you put your planted pots out, take photos. And if you change the planting, take new ones. Then if you spot them in someone else's garden, you've got some evidence. A thief could argue that there are lots of pots on the market the same as yours. But it would be too much of a coincidence if they had the same plants in them.
Hi, I'm about to place an old standard (tree shape) poted wisteria by the front door on my front little garden (south facing) but I'm afraid it will be stolen. I'm thinking to use a small stand anchored into the ground, a heavy pot anchored to the stand, existing pot anchored to the big pot (have to wait for spring to repot into the big pot?) And the plant anchored with wires to the existing pot and between all that maybe a cheap alarm... It will be a pain doing it but my rear garden is north facing and perhaps not enough sun for wisteria. Any update on previous comments or advice?
If you use a huge planter, you could place a couple of pounds of gravel in the bottom, then with the soil and plant it should be way too cumbersome, not to mind stolen.
Thanks Mary and fire, adding weight is a good simple idea... Hopefully enough. I'm trying to find out if I can repot now or have to wait for early spring.
Yeap since is better to wait for spring, beside using the weight trick in the meantime I will add one of those keyring alarms, may sound ridiculous and laugh! but more ridiculous was when recently my glass recycling bin was stolen.
The best idea I've just implemented with the installation of some 12 inch pots beside the front footpath entrance to the house is to drill some 4" masonry anchor screws into the bottom of the pot (need to be an inch thick where you drill them in (pre-drill the hole the diameter of the shank of the screw), then angle-grind the hex head of the screw off when the anchor screw is tight in the pot, then when you cement the base for it (which has a cement spigot going into the ground 12-16 inch (and about 4 inch diameter) you put the pot onto the top of the cement pad as the water has dried out on top and it has a little bit of support but plastic enough to gently wriggle and set the cement around the masonry screws) and let it sit there. Make sure the rotation of the pot is correct as you are lowering the pot into the cement (because you don't want to mess up the cement too much with multiple attempts), and then use a level to set the squareness of the pot.
I gouged a 1/4" channel from the drain hole to the side of the pot (the side away from sight) so that the water has clear route for escape. I tested it with a little water to see if it worked as soon as I placed the pot, in case I had to tweak it before the cement went off. That should last a few decades. Then do the same process again when the screws are rusted out completely. A 9" angle grinder or hack saw blade (without the frame, but just holding the blade with a garden glove) should be able to cut through the screws if you don't want to smash the cement. The idiot neighbours or thieves should have grown up and moved on by the time it needs to be replaced.
We don't have a problem with garden thieves in this small town, but I pitched my design to the lowest possible denominator, and the neighbours from hell described here are the people I had in mind.
Posts
Any update on previous comments or advice?
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/exnasa-engineer-who-had-package-stolen-from-his-porch-spends-six-months-building-glitter-bomb-a4021051.html