Securely anchoring plant pots

sly_dog_jonah

We had a pair of bay trees stolen from our front garden last night. :mad: Unfortunately we weren't the only ones targeted, our neighbours a few doors down had two topiary bushes pinched too. :shocked:

Ours were in square pots around 30cm (h x d x w), with a fair amount of heavy rubble to weigh them down. However we'd planned against high wind, not highway robbery. Alas even though our home insurance excess is only around half the replacement cost, and we have protected no claims discount (one protected claim per 3 years), I still don't fancy claiming and paying over the odds for 5-6 years to come. NCD doesn't matter, the total premium will rise and so too the 'discounted' premium.

I'm trying to take out my frustrations on a google hunt to find a way of securing their replacements (when the budget allows), but seem to have drawn a blank. I've seen plenty of talk of securing pots via the drain hole, and then anchoring to the ground or a wall. But can I find someone selling these? What should I put inside the pot to attach the end of the chain to?

Our porch is rendered and one pot was in front of one side on grass, the other was on the other side of the porch on earth between the rendered wall and concrete paving slab on our path. We don't want to spoil the appearance by having visible chains, but as both would be flush to the base of the wall and would be obscured, we could dig down slightly and hide any binding to the wall beneath the soil/grass. We need to be able to move the pots a bit to cut the grass, but otherwise they would remain in situ.

We've speculated that the theives might have been on the hunt for builders tools (our house is on a new development which is literally just being finished) so the swines could potentially return in future and be armed with bolt cutters, etc. Hopefully they won't of course but I'm loathe to gift them another easy picking.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

annie123

Sorry to hear that.
I've had painted old tyres taken some years ago and all the spuds inside too, and someone else in my road had their small Japanese tree dug up and removed.

Neighbour put gravel down all over the front garden so a good crunch is heard as a deterrent that might work for you if you put pots in the middle of it.

Rummer

So sorry to hear about your trees. We have been the victims of garden theft a few times now (at two different addresses). On the first occasion our daughters bench went missing and the second time pots were taken from our garden and smashed in the street. Both times I was left upset (we saved up for the items) and angry. Not sure the best way to secure items, we moved everything that could be moved to the back of the garden.

cootambear

motion detector triggered lighting is a reasonable dterrent

Jesthar

cootambear wrote: »

motion detector triggered lighting is a reasonable dterrent

Motion detector triggered paintball gun would be far more satisfying

sly_dog_jonah

Sad to hear it's such a common problem these days, it wasn't exactly the sort of welcome we'd expected from the local rogues after moving from SW London to sleepy Somerset.

annie123 wrote: »

Sorry to hear that.
I've had painted old tyres taken some years ago and all the spuds inside too, and someone else in my road had their small Japanese tree dug up and removed.

Neighbour put gravel down all over the front garden so a good crunch is heard as a deterrent that might work for you if you put pots in the middle of it.

Unfortunately our nice paved path leads up to the front door where the trees were placed, so gravel isn't really an option. But it might work for someone else :-)

Rummer wrote: »

So sorry to hear about your trees. We have been the victims of garden theft a few times now (at two different addresses). On the first occasion our daughters bench went missing and the second time pots were taken from our garden and smashed in the street. Both times I was left upset (we saved up for the items) and angry. Not sure the best way to secure items, we moved everything that could be moved to the back of the garden.

Sorry to hear about that mindless vandalism and theft, I know how you feel though. Its not even as if the tree's were visible unless illuminated by vehicles driving by, as we have no street lights (green belt) and its very dark.

cootambear wrote: »

motion detector triggered lighting is a reasonable dterrent

We have motion-triggered lighting on our garage, but as that is set back from the house on one side it can't cover the front lawn (which footprints suggest they walked over). However our porch light is non-motion sensored and we rarely have it on for that reason (saving the planet and all that), however I'm sure it must be feasible to retrofit a motion sensor to it somehow.

Jesthar wrote: »

Motion detector triggered paintball gun would be far more satisfying

I'm not sure our friendly postie would agree! But thanks for cheering us up :-)

laurel7172

Paved path?

Lift slabs on which pots were standing.

Set one end of a chain into concrete.

Drill a chain-sized hole in paving slab, and replace, feeding chain through holes in slab and in bottom of pot.

Secure chain (by padlock or other means) inside the pot.

Top up with lots of gravel.

sly_dog_jonah

laurel7172 wrote: »

Paved path?

Lift slabs on which pots were standing.

Set one end of a chain into concrete.

Drill a chain-sized hole in paving slab, and replace, feeding chain through holes in slab and in bottom of pot.

Secure chain (by padlock or other means) inside the pot.

Top up with lots of gravel.

The pots are adjacent to the paved path, but not on top of it. Your approach could work though if the concrete was buried beneath the grass (which is now fairly dead after being covered for 2 months) and the bed. Would give me a first chance to mix some concrete, which I'll also need in the rear garden for the rotary airer :-)

Jack_-_Plant_Pots

[FONT=&quot]That’s really sad to hear, it’s really good to have plant pots at outdoor and I know how it feels when its stolen. I have had similar experience in the past, then I bought new plant pots at a very good price and they are just amazing. [/FONT]