Jack Hanna
Folks donate the plants. Volunteers put them in the ground in Dundonald Park and tend them.
Then thieves steal the plants, pulling them from the ground in a public park.
“We continue to have people pilfering plants,” says Barbara Sibbald, leader of the Dundonald Gardening Group. “It is a shock to me – to put a plant in the ground and soon after to see a gaping space.”
This spring, a volunteer planted a dozen geraniums in Dundonald Park’s big central planter. The next day, 11 were gone.
“There have been thefts in past years,” says Sibbald, “but this year it is a lot worse.”
Two rose bushes have been stolen, one the night after it was planted. As well, an Emily Carr Rose that was established – it had been planted a year earlier – was dug out and swiped. “It made it through a winter and was looking beautiful, and someone stole it.”
Other plants have vanished.
Signage didn’t work
Sibbald tried to address the problem with signage. A volunteer made a dozen signs stating: “These gardens are made by volunteers. Please be respectful.”
But the thefts continued.
“This is being done by people who have a home and a garden, dishonest people who are too lazy or cheap to go out and buy plants,” says Sibbald.
The volunteer gardening crews – working in Dundonald Park, St. Luke’s Park, and along the verge of Frank Street – are with the Centretown Community Association.
Although the City has provided small grants, the volunteers get most of their plants from individuals who split what’s growing in their gardens.
As well, the Master Gardeners of Ottawa this spring donated all the plants left over after their big plant sale at the Experimental Farm.
“We are trying to create something beautiful,“says Sibbald.
“All the volunteer labour and energy, all the donations – there is a lack of respect for all that. It’s very frustrating.”