Would it be borrowing or stealing?

11 years ago

The city I live in did a huge project to improve drainage and stop you from being able to cross over lanes in some areas. Last year they planted literally thousands of coneflowers of different colors, mostly purple and white. Tons and tons of tall decorative grasses. They have looked nice but we have gone more than 3 weeks without rain other than 1, 10 minute shower. Long story short these babies are pretty much all going to seed. If I took some, used some for my yard and WS some to share back with the city community gardens would it be borrowing or stealing? I have tried to call the court house but nobody knows or wants to make a decision. What do you think?

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Comments (4)

terrene
11 years ago
I am impressed that your city would grow such lovely native flowers! What types of grasses are they?

My coneflowers reseed like crazy and that is only with a few dozen plants. It sounds like there will be literally GAZILLIONS of seeds produced by that volume of plants and that they could spare a few or even a lot. The Goldfinches must be happy!

There is a nearby school that has some native plantings in the drainage swales, and I've meant to stop by and collect seed from time to time, but haven't gotten around to it. It never even occurred to me that taking a few seeds would be stealing.
christie_sw_mo
11 years ago
Are you sure it was your city that planted them and not a volunteer organization of some sort? It's fantastic that they did something like that. I'm impressed too. How is it maintained?
Technically it's stealing if you take seeds and you could be fined if you got caught but I doubt that you would unless you were digging plants.
I would make a few more phone calls. Your city should have landscapers that might be able to tell you who's maintaining the garden.
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ohiovalleygardener
Original Author
11 years ago
A few years ago my city got huge fines from the EPA for mishandling waste water and storm run off. Since then they have made lots of improvements. We are getting new treatment stations plus they have added grasses and plantings to some of our smaller city parks that will conserve water and control run off. This is part of that program. They put in drainage ditches and pipes but every time it would rain the soil would wash away.
I took some pics and got a really good look. There are the coneflowers, a few daylilies, some low growing spruce bushes, ornamental grasses and bradford pear trees. Will post pics later.
trudi_d
11 years ago
Take what you can get as long as it is safe to do so. The town next to mine planted the turnpike meridians with wildflowers, daylilies and shrubs which looked great for a year. They didn't put into their budget the maintenance and weeding, and they didn't count on these plants being ruined by salt or getting plowed when the trucks couldn't see the meridians in severe blizzards. It was a disaster and most of it was removed--it was stupidly planned and they learned the hard way how not to waste public money. Hopefully, your local project will be given the care it needs--like weeding and pruning--to maintain its beauty.