He Stole My Schtick.

Ben and I have never had a house before this one, so when we moved in a couple of years ago, we kind of nonverbally chose our areas of the yard that we were in charge of. He clearly showed me that the lawn was HIS TERRITORY. I tried watering it one day, and he let me know that was NOT okay. :) And gardening was my territory. My thing. My schtick.

Until recently. Ben stole my schtick! And I'm kind of mad about it! If he had done a good job, I'd be like, oh, okay... But I'm not happy with the results. He wanted to move my crocuses, which was fine by me. But instead of digging nicely underneath the bulbs and moving them gently, he pulled them out, like they were weeds, separated the bulbs, and then transplanted them! They used to look like this:

And now they look like this:

Nice, Ben. Nice. Who knows if they will even come back next spring??? And in the above picture, it looks like there are little weeds all over. Oh no. They're wildflowers. From a package of wildflower seeds - specifically supposed to be planted in the shade - that my mom gave me last year. He mixed them into the soil, right there in the front, where it will be a million degrees with constant sun in the summer!!! They may eventually look pretty, after they bloom, but they will die back quickly once that heat hits. I guess they're perennials, so we will have to painstakingly try to transplant them to the backyard after they bloom. Grrrrr.

He also transplanted some of my tulips, ripping them out like weeds, just like he did with the crocuses, so they look like crap, too. Ugh. I'm so mad.

The one thing I approve of is the poppies he planted:

They just keep blooming and blooming, despite all of this horrible wind. But he only got three, and put them right in the middle of the front flower bed. I wish he would have gotten enough to put in more, and make it look more symmetrical. I am a fan of symmetrical gardens.

Here he is, in the act of destroying my garden:

He's the devil. And there, in the picture, is our little neighbor girl, Ashlynn. The one with the nappy hair. Sadie's hair looked just like that a couple of days ago. I was like, "Oh my gosh. Sadie looks like Ashlynn!!! Ahhhh!" Like a little ragamuffin. Ew. Ben is really sweet - all three of our neighbor kids were just hanging out with him all day that Saturday, talking to him, bugging him... And he was talking to them and joking with them all day long, while he was systematically destroying my garden. I just ignore those kids, because they really bother me. He's a better person than I am. :) Except for that he stole my schtick.