Theft From Garden Club

[Bon]

• Police received a report about a theft from a representative of the Garden Club. She told police that over the past year-and-a-half, someone has been stealing flowers from the flower beds around Charlie’s Alternator on North Franklin Street. She believed the offender has a vast knowledge of flowers because they are stealing the most expensive and rare ones. Additionally, she told police that a spade fork and shovel had gone missing from the storage shed in recent months. Police are continuing their investigation at this time.

[Petee]

Yep, we planted about a dozen relatively expensive fall perennials less than a month ago, and a week later at least 9 were gone. The thief isn't even worrying about hiding the holes!  That person takes huge amounts of soil too.  Then we have to buy soil to fill the holes.  At least they like our choice.  It's a shame when you have to put a padlock on your soil bin.

JLT1985 has been coming alone and with friends to help with the heavier work, and WOW, I pulled in today and thought I was seeing someone else's gardens!  He is a hard worker. loves what he does, and a whiz at doing things.  I swear that he's like the shoemaker's elves!  What a blessing he has been.

We're working on some security measures but now we have that expense in addition to replacing whatever perennials we can find next year.  They aren't even available at this time of year any more. There's a narrow window for stores to stock them and I thought we really scored this year.  It turns out that someone else's gardens will be blooming better than ours.

Walmart gave us a half sized hard top gazebo which we will be developing as a rest spot for the public.  We want people to stop in to enjoy and hopefully destress a little.

There's more coming folks.  Check later for the little cabin.  I'm not telling!

[Rossiter]

Thanks, Walmart.

[Bon]

Isn't there any cameras in that area to help catch the thief??

 

[Petee]

Not yet, but Security Lights and some other things are in the works.

[Bon]

BUDS Gardeners disheartened by thefts from garden

• By Eric Hrin ehrin@thecourierexpress.com
• 

• BUDS Gardeners members said they are disheartened by thefts from this garden at Charlie’s Alternator & Starter Shop in DuBois, which they have planted and maintained.

  By Eric Hrin

• DuBOIS — Some avid gardeners with green thumbs have planted and maintained a large garden beside Charlie’s Alternator & Starter Shop in DuBois, but someone with sticky fingers is stealing from it.

  Cheryl Shenkle, president of BUDS Gardeners, whose members planted the garden, said plants, flowers, parts of shrubs and large amounts of soil have been taken.

  Most recently, about three weeks ago, someone took nine of 12 fall perennials that BUDS Gardeners had purchased and planted in the pollinator bed at the garden, located at the corner of Park Avenue and Franklin Street.

•  

  “Someone is doing some heavy fall harvesting,” Shenkle commented.

  According to Shenkle, the first theft took place back in spring 2016, when a miniature dwarf Alberta spruce was taken from a planter at the garden. She estimated it was worth $50 at the time it was taken.

  “I was kind of sick because I knew there was a potential for it to continue,” she recalled of her reaction. “You hesitate to buy better plants when you’re afraid they will just disappear. It affects your enthusiasm.”

  Then, this past spring, another of the dwarf spruce trees was taken.

  The thief or thieves have been choosy.

  “They’re picking out stuff that is valuable, long-term perennials, and when they take them, they’re taking like a 5-gallon bucket of soil,” she said.

  Sometime between late August and early September this year, Shenkle found a good-quality hydrangea laying over. Someone had taken bouquets of flowers off the shrub.

  Rather than carefully cutting the bouquet, she said the person “just kind of whacked two-thirds of it off.”

  “The whole plant kind of fell over. So, we have it tied temporarily, trying to keep the trunk upright. And next spring, we’ll do a lot of corrective pruning on this. It might be fine. It might take a few years for this plant to come back.”

  She noted the hydrangea was for everyone to enjoy, not just for the one person who took the flowers.

  “And if anybody wants a cutting, we’ll give them one,” she added. “We’ll divide a plant and give them some. When they steal it, they’re stealing if from the community, and worse, they’re stealing it from the kids, because that’s why we do this, so the kids have some pride in their community and they feel good about where they came from.”

  There have also been thefts of seedlings, large salvia plants, a large and expensive rudbeckia, coneflowers, three “huge” hyssops, and two big Russian sage plants. A decorative water barrel was even stolen. In addition, various gardening tools were taken from the shed at the garden. It was locked, but someone was still able to find a way to gain access. Since then, a better lock was put on the shed, and nothing has been taken, according to Shenkle.

  She noted that BUDS Gardeners is checking into a camera system to monitor the site. In addition, she has talked to DuBois City police officer about the thefts. A security light will soon be installed.

  “It is hurtful and discouraging to all working members to go to weed and water, only to find that a beautiful showy plant has been hacked almost to destruction and others stolen,” she commented. “More time and money are now involved in coaxing injured plants back to life, replacing missing plants and healthy soil.”

  Shenkle estimates the total amount of all the thefts at somewhere between $400 and $500.

  She added that the garden has not only beautified the area, but is supposed to be “an area of comfort for humans as well as animals in the heart of DuBois.” It is the site of BUDS Gardeners’ monarch butterfly project, and contains numerous pollinator plants for butterflies, insects and birds. More than 500 monarch butterflies were raised and released this year through the butterfly project.

  Another member of BUDS Gardeners, Marianne Atkinson, was discouraged by the thefts.

  “The flowers that are planted in the beds by Charlie’s Alternator and in the downtown pots are mostly raised from seed or bulbs by the BUDS Gardeners or purchased,” she said. “The money for growing or buying these flowers is raised by only two fundraisers: the Plant Bazaar in the spring and the gift wrapping fundraiser at the DuBois Mall the week before Christmas. The BUDS Gardeners spend a lot of time and hard work to raise money to grow and plant flowers to beautify the downtown DuBois area for everyone to enjoy.”

  “I am very disappointed and sad that plants have actually been dug up and stolen. After all of the effort that has been put into making the community a prettier place, in addition to the flowers providing nectar for pollinator insects, such as butterflies and bees, having flowers dug up and removed is very discouraging.”

  She added that the pots in front of Uzi’s Pastries are also planted and maintained by BUDS Gardeners, and there has been incidents there, too.

  “There has been vandalism at Uzi’s Pastries flower pots this year,” Atkinson said. “Some of the 4-foot tall Canna stalks were completely broken off and left lying on the ground by the pot. Two large excellent pollinator plants with bright red flowers were also snapped off near their bases. There were many flower buds that would have produced flowers for a long time for the pollinators.”

  “The combination of stealing and vandalizing flower plants downtown is extremely disheartening,” she said.

  Meanwhile, Shenkle asks that anyone who sees something suspicious to report it to her by emailing hercshenkle@verizon.net or calling (814) 590-9010.

   

[Petee]

Yep, that's the story.  Hopefully the thief reads it and feels enough remorse to stop.  Otherwise we will be getting a nice picture of him/her soon.

We're planning lots of nice additions, and we already have people who make a special trip there to do photography, just enjoy seeing what's new growing in the gardens, and to check out the bees and butterflies.  Some of the original plants came from a USDA Pollinator Project.  

This makes us stop, back up to make repairs and replacements, and then try to get the rest of the improvements done with a heavier heart and some dread.  That's not what a garden is supposed to be about.  I have a feeling that it's just one person.  It could be more, but he/she has some skills.