CCTV fitted as Taff's Well gardener's allotment 'sabotaged' by weed killer

Allotments have been allegedly sabotaged with weed killer sprayed on vegetable patches, a gardener has said.

David Legge, 68, believes the mystery culprit has a "grudge", targeting plots at Taff's Well, near Cardiff.

The retired pub landlord has lost 12 cabbages, 200 pea plants, eight swedes and a row of sweetcorn this year.

Mr Legge said gardeners have alerted police and have set up their own CCTV cameras to try to protect their vegetables and fruit trees.

"It's terrible - everybody's up in arms about it," he said.

Mr Legge and his partner Lynda Protheroe, 70, began tending the plot near their home about six years ago.

He said five plots were targeted last season and two this year, including his own and the allotment association's acting chairman.

"There's somebody with a grudge," Mr Legge told BBC Radio Wales.

He believes a water pistol has been used to squirt weed killer because the damage to foliage is directional - like a "water line" - rather than affecting a wider area as if dispensed via a spray gun.

"The poison goes in the ground so you can't plant things for like a month," he said.

"It's only now that I'm putting stuff back which was hit about a month ago."

Taff's Well and Nantgarw Community Council, which rents its land to the allotment association, said it was only aware that there had been some vandalism at the site.