Bad allotment day

[rogesse]

I came back from the allotment on Sunday almost in tears - somebody (don't know who) has decided to empty my 250 lt barrel of comfrey tea - it has been upended and the lid and brick put back on the now up turned bottom.

WHY

As far as I am aware I've not upset anybody - my neighbour has, virtually one whole side of the site plus the council have by redrawing the plots - but as I'm at an end it doesn't really affect me or those close.

My spare blue pallets went missing for a day but that was the council - they got their van stuck in the mud, put them under their tyres to get out and didn't put them back where they found them. My lovely 76yr opposite and a bit up neighbour tried to drag them back for me (were dumped on his plot)

I'm at a loss and rather upset that there maybe a nasty person/person I've annoyed out there - what next?

[Storming Norman]

I'm sorry to hear about this.

This 'deed' would have taken a lot of effort to do, and possibly more than one person as well - so it's highly unlikely you could have annoyed anyone that badly and not be aware of it!

The finishing touch suggests someone though this was funny.

I think you have been touched by the vandals, you are tucked out of the way and this helps anyone with a destructive bent. They let off steam - unfortunately you were on the receiving end.

They would have had to have been splashed with the tea - hopefully the thought of what they smelt like afterwards will put a small smile back on your face. Maybe that will put them off doing it again.

A chat with the local police might help. A CCTV sticker on the barrel might help - they can be bought cheaply. Or dare I say a POISON sticker might ever deter a future re-offence. If not maybe they will water it on your plants next time?

Here's hoping this is a one-off problem.

Ann

[rogesse]

Thanks Ann, the thought of them going away smelly has definately raised a smile, by god it stank!

[Snadger]

Thanks Ann, the thought of them going away smelly has definately raised a smile, by god it stank!

Could that not have been why a neighbour upended it.....because of the smell????

[chocobed]

If it stank, maybe some inconsiderate person decided they would get rid of the smell while you weren't looking ?
As they placed the lid and brick back on, I would look to a fellow plotholder rather than vandals as it's unlikely they would be tidy!
I hate to say it, but some people will try and change things you do if they don't agree with your way of gardening.

[spennysaint]

i just don't understand some people have they got nothing better to do with their life!

I'm also in enfield - which allotments are you on. If you don't ant to say for everyone else to see can you PM me

Claire

[rogesse]

Good point Snadger - it was at the top end of the plot........

..... Chocobed - we have a very 'helpful' person we call 'Brian' (slimes everywhere) who has a tendancy to go on other peoples plots and be 'useful'. I made a hedgehog/overwinter area which he cleared up thinking he was being a help

[Growem]

I had a similar thing happen with a smaller container of nettle tea I was brewing. I was upset too, but as it was smaller, I decided that it was an accident. Whether it was or not, I don't know, but it made me happier than staying fuming at persons unknown. It's not easy to shrug these things off, but it's probably best to do so. Fortunately comfrey tea can be made again for cheap/free, so you can start again straight away.

[toastie]

Having made 'comfrey tea' last year, I can still remember the smell, whoever did it must have clear sinuses now. There are some very strange, spiteful, silly people about. Early in the New Year most shed locks had been forced by someone on our plot, whoever did it didn't take anything - think this may have been because they jumped over the locked fence and wouldn't have been able to take anything with them. Chin up - don't let it put you off, keep on going.

[Two_Sheds]

If it stank, maybe some inconsiderate person decided they would get rid of the smell while you weren't looking ?....
I hate to say it, but some people will try and change things you do if they don't agree with your way of gardening.

that's what I thought. Somebody objects to the smell (I do mine in four pint milk bottles with the lids on ... smell contained).

I used to plant flowers up the lane to our allotment, but some of the old boys objected (on what grounds, I'm not sure). Not to my face, but to each other. Nearly every week I go up there to see that somebody has driven a vehicle over my flower borders - you can't do that by accident.

[zazen999]

I've got 2 drainpipe pieces with small plant pots at the bottom held on with silicone attached to the side of my shed...I put comfrey in the top of one and nettles in the top of another and the gunge oozes out into a bucket [hopefully].

So I can add it to the water as I go.

Saw it at Garden Organic and decided it was the tidiest way to collect it.

If I left it in buckets or waterbutts...my OH would upend it and come back and tell me all about it [Got rid of that stinky bucket for you...]

I imagine someone was trying to do you a favour - annoying isn't it???

[Nicos]

Do you have Badgers???

Could it have been knocked over and someone 'helpful' tidied it up so you wouldn't lose the lid??
Maybe the helpful person thought it was stagnant water ( having never heard of comfrey tea???) and was just helping you tip away a heavy load of smelly 'water' by mistake?????


If it was this guy trying to be helpful....you're going to need to talk with someone/him about things

..so it may not be a spiteful action after all.

[Plot17B]

Could that not have been why a neighbour upended it.....because of the smell????

hmm...we have a big tub of comfrey tea which utterly honks if you stir it, but as the top layer of leaves have "sealed" the fluid, and with the lid on properly, it doesn't whiff. And it's just a simple grey dustbin, nothing special. Unless you interfere, no-one would know what was in there really.

I agree that whoever did it will honk and serves them right. Even if they were "doing you a favour", it's still not right to interfere with your plot. After all, they could of spoken to you/the committee saying "that whiff has to stop" instead of taking things into their own hands......
P17B

[Tori]

Ask around maybe someone will own up?!

[rogesse]

Thanks every body - feel loads better now and have let it go

I guess I'll just have to see what happens when I plant the area it was tipped on - hopefully not 'Day of the Triffids'