A Centretown resident is warning her gardener neighbours to be on the lookout for suspicious people after she woke up to find her vegetable garden gone.

Katie Brown is in disbelief over what happened at her Florence Street home last weekend and has resolved not to see it repeated.

"It was here when we went to bed at 10 o'clock, and it was gone when we woke up at 8:30," said Brown.

The 25-kilogram rectangular planter that was filled with kale, tomato plants and soil disappeared from her front porch Friday night.

Brown said the planter, which rested just two metres from her front door, was too big to fit in the back seat of a car.

"You needed a pickup truck, or a van, or two people," she said.

Thieves left only the plastic feet behind when, in the middle of the night, they made off with Katie Brown's vegetable planter. (Supplied)

Not first time plants stolen

A few years ago, Brown planted a honeysuckle that lasted one week in her garden before it was stolen.

"Somebody literally came with a shovel and dug the plant out of the ground," Brown said.

A year after that, thieves stole a small, 5-kilogram pot containing sunflowers from her front porch.

Earlier this spring, thieves made off with something else from her yard — several, slim, metal balusters from the new garden fence.

"You always want to chalk it up to Centretown, Friday, two in the morning, somebody coming home from the pub and being silly," said Brown, who has tried to keep her humour about the challenges of her address.

Katie Brown has been gardening a patch of her yard near Lyon and Florence Streets in Ottawa's Centretown neighbourhood since 2011. (Stu Mills/CBC)

Bought security cable and padlocks

In response, the avid gardener has locked down the rest of her garden to prevent future thefts.

On Sunday, Brown purchased braided security cable and padlocks from a hardware store.

Then, she fed several metres of steel cable through the holes and locked all of her remaining planters and flower pots together.

The next person who tries to steal a planter from Katie Brown's garden will find the plants locked down and attached together with cables from the hardware store. 0:58

"So, somebody tries to steal my planters again, they're going to be in for a surprise."

She's also asked neighbours to be on the lookout for her garden box.

"My husband's like, 'You're never going to find it!' It's making me feel better, I don't care," Brown said.

Earlier this week, Katie Brown locked her remaining plants together with security cable. (Stu Mills/CBC)

Plants also stolen nearby

Neighbour Sara Jarvis has lived in Centretown for 15 years and said though the neighbourhood is generally safe, she too has had plants stolen from her front garden.

She recently lost a thriving bunch of irises to thieves.

"They were just magnificent," she recalled. "Came out one morning and there was just this foot-wide hole in the garden."

She's been unable to grow irises in that area of her garden ever since.

Brown says that rather than throw the book at the thieves, she'd like to pass along what her mother taught her.

"I'm happy to teach you how to grow your own vegetables — just stop stealing mine!"