On 2009-06-30 17:47:41 +0100, "Kate Morgan" said:

My daughter has had her allotment ruined, she grows flowers shrubs etc.
at home and keeps the allotment for vegetables and soft fruit, She is very
keen gardener and competes at local flower shows etc. Her allotment is
or was organic and she grows herbs amongst the veg, I am telling you
this cos it says the sort of gardener she is. However a few days ago
someone put weedkiller all over the plants and yesterday after being
away for a camping weekend she found that someone had pulled up all
the plants and burnt the lot. She knows who it was but cannot contact
them, the fact that the person involved is of limited intelligence makes it
almost impossible to take the matter further. I feel so sad for her :-(

kate

I am sorry to read that. Your poor daughter. Perhaps a call to the
police will prevent something similar happening again or to someone
else. Don't allotment holders have a sort of board of organisers or
similar?

IIRC the same thing happened to Bob some time ago. He was -
unsurprisingly - very upset at the time.
--
June Hughes

I want to thank everyone for their kind concern and comments. My
daughter does not want to involve the police as they are a small
community but she is getting in contact with all the other people who
have allotments on the same site to tell them who did what and ask them
to watch out for the individual who is guilty. He is still avoiding her
but he cannot hide forever. In the meantime she is going to restock and
start growing again. One problem is that she does not know what sort of
weedkiller was used but until she tries she will not know, thanks again
I will make sure that she reads the group, she will appreciate all the
comments, I will keep you all posted to further developments

kate

I wonder if it's possible for her to tell the police about this but on
the quiet, if that makes sense. IOW, not with a view to them directly
involving themselves but with a view to keeping an eye open for further
trouble so that word filters back to the vandal that he's being
watched. This would depend a great deal on the area in which she lives
and the demands on police time, I'm sure. Unhappily, Sgt. Dixon is no
longer with us! I'm assuming the apparent culprit isn't another
allotmenteer but if he is, his life won't be worth living among the
rest of them! As others have said, some swiftly reacting plant, e.g.
tomato would be a good soil test. I am just horrified at that level of
spite and cowardice being directed at anyone. It speaks volumes for
his character, though that's not much consolation to his victim. ;-(
I do hope she can find a 'someone' with a bit of moral or authoritarian
clout who can intervene and get a strong message across to the
perpetrator.
BTW, I understand that CCTV cameras aren't that expensive nowadays and
there might be a handy tree nearby to which to fix it?
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Shrubs & perennials. Tender & exotics.
South Devon