Overruled
June 24, 2010 
This spring my sister was nice enough to dig up portions of some perennials she had -- stella de oro daylilies, bee balm, and iris -- so I could transplant them to our house. I planted them along the house, despite the knowledge that it was the dogs' favorite place to lay. I thought that they would somehow understand the importance of landscaping and foliage around the perimeter of one's dwelling, and leave my plants alone.
They didn't. Evidently our dogs aren't quite that highly evolved.
It wasn't anything fancy (I did add mulch eventually), but I had dreams that my little perennial garden would flourish in years to come.
But then Burley turned this...
...into this...
...and subjected all the other plants to the same torture, and I cried.
Actually, I didn't cry. I dug my heels in. I came up with more elaborate fencing -- garden sticks all around the outside to keep them from hopping in -- and resolved that I would be the victor of this little war with my dogs.
I was the sheriff in this here town.
But evidently our dogs are highly evolved enough to figure out how to hop over a little fence and through some flimsy sticks.
When Elsa entered the picture, a mere innocent puppy, and breached the barrier as well, I simply gave up. I realized that I didn't care enough about the area to come up with more fencing ideas. I also realized that if the area, which was meant to look nice, ended up being surrounded with ugly fence, then wasn't I pretty much defeating the overall purpose anyway? And one more realization... I like having the dogs lying happily outside the house.
So why was I fighting it?
Last weekend I tore down the whole sh'bang and transplanted some of the plants to their new home, around my bird feeder pole. And it turns out, the dogs aren't the only happy ones about this...
Little Blue Eyes has claimed it as his 'field' and his 'garden', and requested that I leave him some mulch to bulldoze.
This has numbed the sting of defeat quite significantly for me.
Reader Comments (3)
Oh my! That is a total travesty!
How can it be that you aren't the queen of your domain?
Seriously?
I know. I've been dethroned!!! :(
Oh, those darn dogs of ours. I have two mock orange shrubs planted out back from last year and I looked out the other day and Ruby had eaten one! Branches were just laying around and there was nothing left but a few bare twigs poking out of the ground! Grrrr.