And on the subject of #planttheft, which seems prevalent around the world...! I bought my house here in this Italian medieval quarter when the whole place was relatively abandoned: I bought it for a minimal sum, which suited my 'budget' and I renovated it on literally no funds, so every cent I did spend meant a great deal.
Having no garden initially, I created a beautiful raised bed 'street garden': just about 3 m long by 60 cm or so deep - and running down the steps, getting higher as the steps get lower... anyways; I made huge efforts digging up hard soil from abandoned gardens below, and taking cuttings, wild plants, seeds, flowers etc, to fill it :-D
One of the ONLY bought plants that I planted, was this wee thyme - pot-bound and happy to be set into the new soil beside it's new neighbours. I went out to check it the day after planting, and someone had uprooted it completely - you know how a plant tightly rooted into its pot can easily be pulled up before its roots have taken hold... I WAS LIVID!! It was SUCH A MEAN THING TO DO - and this ONE PLANT that I'd spent a most precious couple of Euros on!! I had no income at the time, and this was meant as a truly big addition to my kitchen and bathroom, as food and medicine!
I was well connected on mainstream social media back in those days: I put out a post, recording the incident and asking the community to call the culprit out and get them to replace it: folks were pretty cynical about that working, but I knew that it had to be one of the old ladies who tootle by for early morning mass every day: no-one else used the Via at that time! I knew that someone must've seen them walking up the street with a herb plant in their hands! And if they were a church person, then they'd have to feel some tinge of having done wrong!
The thyme turned up again the next day!! Dumped rather unceremoniously on the street garden bed, but nevertheless, I replanted it and it grew happily for many years. I was very glad to have called the theft out, and have used mainstream social media as a tool like this many times in the past, to get the collective to correct a wrongdoing. :-)
Oh my goddess that is priceless..m they were clearly guilt ridden enough or god threatened to return it but not enough to replant it 😂 .. coward. I love thyme.. I must weed mine today.
Exactly: they knew I'd be watching out for more #gardentheft, and must've lobbed it in there whilst rushing by... it did make me laugh out loud at how it came back to me, when everyone was saying it was lost forever.... That makesme think also about the time someone knicked all my poppy heads - wah!
Oh no that's what we'd call a dog act here, except I love dogs! Look for a garden with all the poppies, obviously, and nick em back!