NORTHAMPTON - Every summer the odd pepper or squash goes missing from the Community Gardens on Burts Pit Road, but this month marks the first time a whole plot was cleared without its owner's consent.

Longtime gardener Mary Beth Averill said "hundreds of dollars" worth of her perennial flowers have been taken since the beginning of June. She said she noticed small thefts earlier in the month, then Tuesday she discovered almost everything in the 20-by-20-foot plot was gone.

"The person that stole my plants obviously doesn't know a lot about gardening," Averill said, "because they didn't take large enough root balls, and now they're going to die."

Averill said she has maintained the plot since 1998. Among the missing are peonies, ornamental sage, false indigo, bee balm, lilies and lupines.

Another gardener saw someone taking the flowers Tuesday evening, Averill said, but didn't realize they were being stolen. He described the suspect to her as a woman accompanied by a three-legged dog. Averill reported the theft to police Thursday, and investigators are trying to contact the witness.

Garden Committee chairwoman Mimi Teghtsoonian said small-scale thefts aren't unusual, but haven't before posed a major problem. Since Averill's flowers were taken, Teghtsoonian said, all members of the Community Gardens have been asked to keep an eye out for suspicious harvesting.

"There's no real way to police it," she said. "We have to depend on people's honesty. Most people are, but a few people aren't."

James F. Lowe can be reached at jlowe@gazettenet.com.