Think of digging up those native wildflowers (or transplanted wildflowers that have been in place for

[jmbar2]

1. A few years ago, I had a drainage ditch in front of my house that I planted...

It was a pain in the butt to mow and keep clear, so I planted it profusely with bulbs, wildflowers and perennials so that it would stay in bloom successively through the year.

I had the same problem with people going out and digging up the plants in bloom. So I took a reel of fishing line and some tent stakes and crisscrossed the ditch to trip the thieves, and installed a "scraminal" motion detector alarm low to the ground for a little more shock value.

I caught my first thief only a couple of days later. He tripped, dropped the stolen plants and the alarm went off. I looked outside to see him driving away with a bag of garden soil over his windshield. Turned out to be the guy I had just hired to mow my lawn. He lost a customer, and his dignity that day.