This weekend I listened to a broadcast where people were complaining about vandalism and theft in their gardens and experts suggesting ways of deterring these awful people.

There is no doubt that as gardening has grown in popularity and gardening makeover shows have encouraged people to buy statues and ornaments to add interest that the crime has increased. But it is just not the ornaments, I have heard of people spending the weekend planting up a new border with shrubs and perennials only to wake up on a Monday morning to find the lot has gone.

I also find vandalism hard to understand, maybe there is a mixture of jealousy, lack of intelligence and alcohol addled brains. My privet hedge has taken more than its fair share of bad treatment, especially at holiday times such as Christmas when drunken youths are on their way home in the early hours. More than once I have looked out of the bedroom window to see a body lying through the hedge and onto the border. I am pleased to report that one got more than he bargained for, landing in a particularly spiny Berberis. The problem is it takes the hedge a long time to recover.

We can take some measures to prevent theft and vandalism but isn’t sad that we have to?

Now, what about cutting a frog’s toenails. I mowed my front lawn and was going round trimming the lawn edge when I noticed that grass was growing into my London Pride which, being London Pride, has spread right up to the lawn edge. I bent down to pull out the grass and from under the London Pride jumped a large frog. It may have been dry for a week but it was still very wet under this canopy but how I missed cutting into him or at least taking off a toe I will never know. And they say cats have nine lives!

Flower Garden in October – Hints and Tips