I am torn about keeping up my wildlife habitat

Lately I have been torn about weather or not I should just throw in the towel and give up on my wildlife habitat and the gardens in the church lot. I am still angry and upset about all the crap I have recently gone through with the vandalism the break in and the constant headache of trying to keep up the church yard. I know if I chucked it all in I would have way to much free time and would be bored out of my head. I also know that for the most part if I stopped doing the church lot no one would even notice.

I have to deal with asshole neighbors that complain about stupid stuff that is not even my fault. My neighbor to the left of my house has always depended on me for a lot of stuff from watching her house, helping her paint so she could rent out the first floor, and feeding her cats whenever she goes away. I have always gone out of my way to help her. I have given her plants and taken care of them for her, I weed her sidewalks, shovel her snow and all she does is complain constantly. She is complaining that her basement is wet all the time because of my plants. There is 6 feet between my habitat and her house. I told her the reason her basement and foundation is wet all the time is because her gutters and down spouts leak. Now she is claiming that they are clogged because of the trees I planted in my wildlife habitat. The trees are not even close to being high enough to get leaves in her gutters to clog them. The tallest tree near her house in my yard is a dog wood that is about 10 to 12 feet tall. She has been snapping at me lately that my wildlife habitat is partially on her property but I looked it up on the county web site and she is nuts. First she started in that I was 6 inches over then she claimed I was a foot over now she says I am 2 feet over on her property and it is going to make it hard for her if she ever decides to sell her house. She has made it clear to me that I do not want to deal with her anymore and that I will not be inviting her over every holiday along with her sisters. When they come over for dinner all they do is fight and argue with each other.

The rental property behind me complains all the time that my roster and chickens are keeping their tenants awake. I told them that the chickens and rooster are not a part of my wildlife habitat and actually belong to the neighbor across the street. They have also been complaining about the churches pine tree dropping needles in there lawn and burning out the grass. I told them that the pine tree belongs to the church. I have been meaning to cut it down but I only have so many hours a day and there are other projects that take priority.

On the other side of my house is the church yard this is the one thing I feel I should just walk away from because it is the most frustrating. People hang out there at night. kids tear it up and no one from the church really does anything to take care of it. The maintenance guy wants to just mow everything down and I am to the point where I think maybe he should just go ahead and do it.

This evening some one for the first time in a long time was over in the lot and at first I thought okay let them do whatever they want because it will be less for me to do later. Then they started spraying plants with round up. I went over and asked them to not spray round up over in the church yard. They started to tell me I was rude and then got rude with me. I told her asking did not work so now I am telling her not to spray round up because she did not know what she was spraying it on. She accused me of being rude again and I said being nice and asking you did not work so if she feels I am rude then maybe she needs to think why. She snapped back and said my brother put this garden in over here and I know what I am doing. I just walked away and went back to work in my own yard. She came over and said she did not understand why she was not supposed to spray round up. I explained to her the plants she was spraying were plants that were planted as a ground cover. I told her it is obvious she does not know what she was spraying. I also told her that round up is bad for the environment kills bees and wildlife and causes cancer. She again brought up that her brother put the garden in 6 years ago and still claimed she knew what she was doing. I told her I knew who Nick was and that no one has been taking care of the garden since he put it in a couple of years. I told her I have been the only one really doing any of the work over there. She began to question me about who I am and if I was a member of the church. I just went back to work in my yard and she apologized about arguing with me and said she did not understand at first why I was upset with her. She said she was going to be doing more work and was going to be painting some stones and putting them around the church yard and putting mulch around. I think this Is where I stop and just walk away. She did a nice job of putting mulch around where the Mary statue is but also pulled up a lot of plants that I had planted along the sidewalk. If she is going to start putting stupid trashy looking painted stones around in the church yard I do not want anything to do with it anymore. It is supposed to be a church yard not a trailer park. I will not be associated with it if it starts to look trashy, and will enjoy the time it will free up for me to spend in my own yard.

I thought by the time I finished venting and putting every thing down I might be able to figure out if I should just give up.This still has not helped me out and makes me realize I am still to angry to make a decision at this time. My wildlife habitat has been my main focus, and my pride and joy for the last few years. It is something I need to be sure I don't give up on out of anger that I will regret in the future.

Some of my favorite visitor in my wildlife habitat are the Butterflies.

Here is a list of some of the more popular butterflies of Pennsylvania that visit my yard and the plants needed to attract them to lay eggs.

Host plants needed for Black swallowtail butterfly larva include the following.
Dill
Celery
Water Parsnip
Marsh Celery
Wild Carrot / Queen Anne's Lace
Fennel
Parsnips
Carrots
Parsley
My wildlife habitat has Queen Anne's Lace spread throughout and I do see Black swallowtails every year.

Host plants for Monarch Butterfly larva include the following.
Any milkweed plants are acceptable for Monarch larva. This includes the entire Asclepias family. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the use of tropical milkweeds in northern climates so I tend to use native and northern types of Asclepias. Some are really nice additions to the garden and include the showier types like Purple Milkweed, swamp milkweed, and orange butterfly weed.

Host plants for Hummingbird Moth larva include the following.
Honeysucle
Rose
Plum
Cherry
Dogbane
Hawthorne
These are cool Moths that are often mistaken as Hummingbirds and are as hard to photograph as well. I have them in my yard all the time but I never seam to get any good photos of them.

Host plants for Eastern Swallowtail are mostly the same as the host plants for Black Swallowtails but also include the following.
Common Rue
Sassafras
Citrus
Common Prickly Ash
Gas Plant
Milk weed
Dutch Mans Pipe
Choke Cherry

As far as host plants for adult butterflies they need flowers that provide nectar. They will enjoy all nectar producing flowers but usually like flowers that form either clumped masses of flowers or flowers that are large with flat surfaces.

First Monarch Caterpillar of the season

Monarch Caterpillar on Milk Weed leaf.

Wildlife Habitat Recovery

As I posted earlier my wildlife habitat has been vandalized. I was told not to clean anything up until the police took crime scene photos. By the time that happened all the water lilies that were pulled from the pond were completely dried up and looked dead. My cat tails and pickerel weed were the same way. I re potted everything and will wait to see if anything comes back. I have been so upset and depressed about this and have not been spending any time out in the yard or at the pond. I still keep finding dead fish on my back steps. I put up security cameras and signs to try to stop these punks from entering my yard again. I have also put alarms on all of my doors and windows so if they try to come back into the house I will know it.

The Vandalism continues.

I have not been able to sleep the last few nights because my yard was vandalized again. This time it went on for two days it started out  Monday night. I did not know anything happened till the next day and when I went out in the morning I found 3 dead fish that were torn in half. At first I thought maybe a cat or something got into the pond. As I looked around some more I noticed that my plants had been pulled up and a lot of stuff was broken or thrown around. I also have a fish bowl with blue glass beads in it and the beads were scattered around the yard and down the street from my house. I cleaned up the yard and went back into the house to post on my neighborhoods web site so others would know to watch out for their property. Afterwards I went back outside to add water to my pond and when I got out in the yard It had been torn up again and more fish had been killed. This time I found they were cutting the fish in half with a razor blade. . I called the police and after they left I cleaned the yard up again. I went back inside and checked the neighborhood website again. My post had received a lot of responses and one person told me they saw two kids the night before at 8:00. He said they were 2 black males around 16 to 18 leaving my front yard. These two have been terrorizing my place for over a year now and their actions have become more escalated and violent. They were not even running or afraid of what they had done they walked out like they lived here and like there was nothing wrong. After lunch I went out and again they tore the place up. I called the police again and after the police left I was so upset I just left the yard the way it was. 

At around 2:30 I had a head ache and went inside to try and lay down. I never fell asleep but just layed on my couch in my living room with the air conditioner on. I heard something around 4:00 and thought I would be real quiet and sneak out to the back yard and catch them tearing the place up again. As soon as I walked around the corner from my living room to the dinning room I saw them in my china cabinet drawers going through stuff. I yelled at them and they took off out the back door. The door had been forced open and the screen door screen that was also locked was ripped apart. I closed the door locked it and called the police for the third time. This time they took things a little more serious. They had two cars show up and one was a K9 unit. They wanted to do a sweep of the house to make sure no one was still in the house But I told them I had cats. They said they would keep the dog on a leash so I said ok. They did not find anyone else in the house so they took a statement wrote up a report and had me look to see if anything was missing. My medication from the VA hospital had been stolen and my Case that I keep my wallet and cell phone was missing. After the police left  I called to have my credit card and ATM card canceled. 

I posted this again on the neighborhood website and after that I went out side to look around and see all the latest damage. I went to look at my next door neighbors gate because they broke that to get into the yard. I moved some of the trash they threw in between her house garage and found the case that contained my wallet and cell phone. Nothing was missing out of it and I figured they must have dropped it when they ran through there to get away. I went back inside and began to look around to see what they had done. Everything was a mess and just thrown all over. 

The next day some friends of mine who heard what happened came over to help me install some security cameras I bought. They also bought some signs that said no trespassing and signs that said security cameras are in use. They brought with them some motion sensor lights and also put those up. I asked how much I owed them and they said they were a gift. After they left I checked the neighborhood web site to find out everyone was trying to set up a go fund me account and they were trying to get volunteers and donations to help fix the place up again. I told them it was not necessary because I already had bought cameras and that friends had already put them up for me. As far as replacing the fish and plants and fixing the yard up and restoring the wildlife habitat I decided not to restore or replace anything. If they are just going to keep coming back then why bother. I do not want them to keep killing the fish and plants.

After I have had a chance to calm down and sort things out I will decide if I should get rid of the wildlife habitat and pond or if I might restore it. either way I am not in the right frame of mind to decide now. All my waterlilies were torn out and thrown everywhere my cat tails were torn out of the pond and out of the container they were planted in along with most of the plants in my pond. My lotus were torn out and I could not even find any of the tubers from them.

Tonight since I can not sleep again I put alarms on all the first floor windows and doors. I have had my fathers old hunting knife at my side the entire time since the last visit from the police. I have gone on line to find out what I need to do to get a gun permit so I can get a gun. I also want to get a carry and conceal permit. I want to know if I go over to the church yard to work or am in my yard I can protect myself.

  

 The neighbors gate that was kicked in and broken

My Kitchen door and screen door where they broke into my house. 

 Lower pond area.

 All my water lilies. I was told not to clean up my yard till the police crime unit comes to take pictures and the waterlilies are dying and attracting flies

 Waterlilies

Empty container that one of my Pickerel weeds were planted in 

 What is left of the water lilies in the upper pond.

 Buckets and plant containers thrown all over and plants trampled.

 Broken solar lights are thrown everywhere

 Dead plants

 Plants and everything scattered

 More dead plants

 Dead plants

One of the dead fish they are really attracting flies and getting dragged away by animals 

Lower Pond I think they may have punctured this because its not holding water. 

 New signs and light

Camera 

Signs and light 

 Cameras

 The torn out plants thrown on top of the bog area.

 Dead plants

 Plants and planters

Torn Up Plants 

 Potted plants moved all over

 A Mess

More cameras and lights.

Vandalism in My Wildlife Habitat Area Again

I got up this morning and went straight out to see my lotus again. It started opening yesterday and I was all set to see it open even more today. As soon as I walked out the back door my day was ruined. The little bastards that have been breaking into my yard and destroying things struck again. They picked my lotus and threw it on the ground along with a bunch of lotus leaves and waterlily leaves. they pulled all of my solar lights out of the ground and threw them in the pond and out on the front sidewalk. They also threw a bunch of the large rocks into the pond and one fell on the American Lotus that I started from seed. it broke of leaves but I think the growing tip is still alright. If they break the growing tip the whole lotus dies. They already killed of several other lotus earlier this year and they killed a bunch of my fish. They trampled some of my native orchids and jack in the pulpit. Today I ordered a security camera system and hope to catch them in the act. I have reported these occurrences to the police and report every time they come back so they can keep a record of when and the damages. These kids think they are getting away with this but it just takes time. They come past my house while I am outside and yell to me that they killed more fish or that they destroyed certain things. The Neighbors have watched them and have also reported this to the police. If I find out who they are then I will press charges and hold their parents liable for all the damages.

My first Lotus Flower has opened.