More of a blather-let

[firecat]

snippy also asked me:

Should I keep trying with my plants, or resign myself to theft?

(For background, see her post on the subject.)

If someone repeatedly stole my plants, I'm sure I'd give up eventually, or plant poison ivy; but from this distance I find myself thinking "Someone who steals plants must really need them. Maybe I will continue to provide them with plants and consider it a sort of spiritual gift to the universe, a declaration of my faith that everything is connected and therefore what does a plant-stealer good also does me good."

Comments

[krasota.livejournal.com]

some folks who steal plants are acting out of compulsion... there've been local cases of klepto gardeners who have lots of containers in their homes/yards/porches--and all were stolen from other gardeners.

but since these are *in the ground*, i think the thief is more likely to think these things out. i'd be likely to plant something thorny. to be quite honest, i have to skimp and save to buy the plants i buy. i have to forego some things in order to buy containers, dirt, etc. i put a lot of effort into my plants and if they were to get stolen, i'd be upset. there's no cosmic gift--i was growing those plants for the birds, butterflies, and for MYSELF, not for some slacker who lives down the street.

Hmmm

[firecat]

The couple that owned my house before I bought it had 100s of plants. I wonder if they were klepto gardeners.

Re: Hmmm

[opalmirror.livejournal.com]

Maybe they had dealt with the local klepto gardeners and had developed an unmanaged habit of buying extra plants. This formed a nice stasis for quite a while, with a steady number of plants present in the beds. Then, a few years before you moved in, the klepto gardener went on vacation. Your predecessors were used to buying extra plants for the klepto and so the stasis was broken. They dutifully crammed more and more plants into the space they had like some sort of crazed phytophilic automata.

Re: Hmmm

[firecat]

*giggle*

Fortunately, they took about 90% of the plants with them, which still left me with about a couple dozen pots and a bunch of out of control vines. But no matter, after a few years with no water, they all died. Darwinian Gardening at its best.