Will no one think of the children?

 For the last couple of weeks, a grounds crew has come on Saturdays to tackle the lamentable and overgrown landscaping hell that surrounds our apartments.

The first week that they arrive, I went out to say hello and to let them know that I have two garden plots (one in the front, one in the back) and if they would please be sure to leave them alone that would be awesome. The person I spoke with was friendly and said he would let everyone know. They did their work without incident.

Only then . . . yesterday happened.  The crew showed up to mow the lawn and take out more of the weeds. It wasn't until they left that I went out back and saw what they had done to my garden. Someone had perhaps not heard the message.

Not only had they trampled around on top of the seeds I'd planted, but my SWEET PEAS WERE GONE. Like yanked up, nowhere to be seen, gone. The sweet peas that were growing IN A FLOWER BED right next to a trellis, with a little plastic label from the seedling box with the word "Sweetpeas" and a picture of flowers on it. The plastic label had been yanked up too. I . . . may have lost my mind a tiny bit. And possibly threw my head back and howled a swear word that was a bit more extreme than the occasion warranted but which maybe was in keeping with my location in accordance to certain womanly cycles which is another reason why they picked a bad day to pull something like this. Then I could see where they'd started to yank up my strawberry seedlings before someone must have clued in.

Seriously. Does THIS look like a weed patch to anybody out there?

A garden, people.

Also I think they broke the special garden hoze nozzle that I bought with my own money. That or they stole my good nozzle and replaced it with the broken one that was sitting on top of the mailboxes but is suspiciously absent now. Hose nozzle is undeniably ganked up and ineffective. Could just spit. Texted the manager last night once I was no longer shouting words of curse to tell her what happened.

And then THIS morning some new people were out there with chainsaws hacking at all the bushes and hedges and letting some of the branches get into my spinach. I could also see that the baby robins' bush had been buzzed, so went out to ask if they'd seen the nest while they were hacking away.

The guy with the chainsaw was really nice and was like, "Yeah, we saw the nest and so we took it out before we chopped the bush and put it back in only now the babies keep falling out!" I looked over and sure enough, there was one of the chicks hopping around in the gravel, with the poor robin mama freaking the heck out. I ran over and the chainsaw guy and I tried to find a better spot for the nest and then I scooped up the babies and put them back in. (Yeah. I save baby robins now. I should probably get my own show on Animal Planet.) (Also, am now having While You Were Sleeping flashbacks. "Remember the birds? I hit them out of their nest with a rock. Then I saved them.")

Am worried that one of them is either hurt or traumatized, because it was not hopping around like the other one. Or maybe it's just smart and knows to lay low. I don't know. But they were still both in there when I left for work and the mama had come and found them and brought them food. And then I called GH on my lunch break and asked him to check on them and he said they seemed fine.

I am glad I was home this morning and spying on the grounds crew so I was able to notice what happened and help the robins. (New rule: pay a TON of attention when there are people near stuff you care about and/or own.) Because fine--go ahead and ruin the garden that I've spent a lot of time and muscle and money on. That makes you a careless jerk. But killing baby birds makes you a murderer, and finding their little carcasses in the gravel later would have done me in.

I swear. Some people have no compassion for my poor nerves.