Wow. I'm surprised that someone would dig up vegetables to steal. That's pretty unusual. In my own experience they usually steal things that are easy to take, like tomatoes and peppers. It sounds to me like your thief is either an experienced gardener (lots of people wouldn't recognize a carrot from the top growth) or someone who has seen you pulling up your carrots and decided they'd like to have some, too.

You have my sympathy.

I had a similar "theft" of my carrots ... roots taken, not tops. It was an underground critter -- I could see teeth marks on parts left. We have ground squirrels, voles and gophers. I don't know who was the culprit.

Where our garden is, theft and needles are our biggest problems. There is an ongoing debate on locking up the garden. I don't even grow tomatoes in my plot anymore. Noone steals the cabbage, and I let wild mustard as well as tall flowers like Cosmos grow high in the fall. It looks pretty but uninviting. Its a terrible feeling to be stolen from, but disguise works. Also, try Remay or other covers. Good luck.

I constantly worry about that since my garden is in the Student Plots at UF... i don't really worry about the students so much as the people who live across the street....to my knowledge it hasn't happened yet.

Im so sorry it happened to you. :(

Years ago I had my carrots taken from a community Garden. Turns out it was a friend of mine's mom who had the next bed over. She thought I had abandoned them (tho they can stay in the ground all winter she should have known). So I got them back cuz I told my friend and he knew what had happened.

We've had peaches vandalized by children - basically just spattered around the place - and we've had peaches and plums stolen from our trees by neighbors. It required a bit of strong-handing and confrontation to get the message across. I'm more than happy to share the fruits of the garden: tomatoes, peaches, grapes and wine, garlic, nectarines, et cetera. However, when the thieves leave the garden gate open for animals to get inside afterward, I become irate....insult to injury is too much.

Not quite a community garden...but not allowed to have fenced yards, either....

Josh

Having the same problem in my community garden this year...the garden is surrounded by an 8' chainlink fence...yet I've lost about 80% of my peppers, and now a few eggplants I was fattening. It's pretty discouraging.

I think it might be time to call it a season and put in my cover crop.

I'm trying to make my home garden more of a community garden. Kids from the neighborhood play here all the time and several of them have asked if they can have their own plots. I will be setting them up with their own plots next year. I don't really struggle from theft as much as from folks not paying attention to what they're doing: I lost my spinach plot out front because people just stepped on it.
I'm so sorry for you guys having this problem! One of the reasons I want to have community plots here is to create a sense of community, and I'm sure that's on your hearts too to some extent. I think this would break my heart!

yes, home garden community garden... i got neighborhood kids involved last year, sad to see many had never put their hands in the dirt, but happy to encourage it..... to the theft, although i don't condone it, i do know many homeless people live from the gardens of others... so here's hoping the thief truly needed it! my garden last year was 1/2 on our property 1/2 on the vacant city lot next door.... so, even though we tended th city lot mowed and whatnot, they still came 3/4ths of the way through the summer after having not done anything all season and mowed the grass to the ground and my zucchini cucumber and cherry toms along with it!.... at least whoever took your carrots ate them, and your tax $$ didn't pay for it! another reason why organizing and proclaiming community gardens is essential.... the city pays so much to mow vacant lots, yet we could be providing fresh produce to the entire city with all the vacant land here!