Any good idea to protect plants from theft in a public space?

Hello HiveGarden community,

I'm reaching out to share a growing concern and to ask for your advice and insight.

In my city, I've been passionately maintaining a community garden, composed of seven large and five small plant containers, positioned in a parking space in front of a market hall. This space is open to all.

While the smaller containers have been in place for couple of years, the larger ones were introduced just this spring. For months, everything seemed fine. The plants thrived, slowly and steadily. Their growth brought immense joy, and I used some harvest to make soup, raising donations for more plants and seeds.

However, over time, unsettling changes emerged. Plants began to mysteriously disappear. Some showed signs of damage, while others seemed to have been stolen. Sometimes tobacco and other garbages were thrown to the container, which happened to small containers before.

Overall plant theft happened the most. The following images depict some of the unfortunate transformations ...

To date, plants such as basil bush, sunflowers, and two blueberry bushes have been pulled and taken away. The loss isn't just monetary, although I must mention some of these plants, like the blueberry plants, weren't cheap.

While I believe in community sharing, the outright theft of plants is disheartening. It even makes me hesitant to plant rarer or expensive varieties like kiwi and fig trees.

I'm pondering the next steps and am contemplating a few preventative measures:

Placing signs even though I'm unsure if it'll deter those who have already committed such acts.
Just continuing to plant with resilience
Opting for larger, less movable plants
Prioritizing more affordable plants to reduce financial damage.
Storing containers inside the market hall daily – It needs a lot of effort for human and not natural for plants ...
Implementing "watchful eyes" around the containers Some believe this deters wrongdoing.
No name cards around the plants so that thieves cannot distinguish what plant they are.

I'd deeply appreciate any insights or experiences you can share about safeguarding plants in public spaces.

Thank you for always being there, Hive Garden family!

~~~

春に拡大したコミュニティーガーデンのコンテナから植物が盗まれてもう怒り心頭というか、悲しいというか、どうにかしたくて、HiveGardenのみなさんのお知恵を借りるために投稿を書き始めました。

植物にダメージがあったり、トマトがもぎ取られたり、ゴミが捨てられたり、いろいろトラブルはあるのですが、一番大きな被害は植物の盗難です。根こそぎ引っ張って持っていかれてしまっている感じです。周囲を見て回っても植物が捨てられている様子はないので、多分引っこ抜いて持って帰って、家に植えているのでしょうか・・・。

こんな感じで、もともと生えていた植物がなくなって、穴が開いている箇所がちらほら。これまでにバジルの茂み、ひまわり、ブルーベリーが持っていかれました。多分他にも。

お金だけの問題ではありませんが、ブルーベリーなんかは一株1000円くらいするので本当にやめてほしいです。秋になったらキーウィやイチジクや、その他数年にわたって大きくしたい植物を植えようと植木市で苗を買って楽しみにしていましたが、また盗まれてしまうことを考えると、植えるのを躊躇います。

そういえば、この数日でコンテナにグラフィティもどきが落書きされる被害もありました。しかも芸術的なのではなくて、下手くそなのが・・・もう。もう一箇所あります。