Landlord always hires cheapest most inept landscapers. I actually asked if landlord told them to level out the garden bed and he replied it just hard to know what to weed….
It’s a garden bed! Larkspur, goldenrod, asters, daisy, hyssop, bergamot, and yarrow.
Then around the back my astilbe was finally blooming and it’s gone.
They didn’t even properly edge dandelions and horse weed growing out of cracks along foundation and stairs…
I know it’ll grow back but I was so looking forward to finally having late season blooms. I want to go cry.
by Doveee789
28 Comments
This is why I tell my landlord that landscapers are not allowed to touch my gardens at all. I pull my own weeds.
What a conflicting upvote. Damn dude, such a brutal blow
I cussed my yard man out a couple weeks ago for killing plants with his blower. Like, how careless do you have to be to do this shit. It feels passive aggressive at best, and fully intentional at worst. I hate that I don’t have more free time to do it myself.
My daily reminder to be thankful a bunch of people in my neighborhood use the same lawn crew who are militant about leaving the milkweed patches at the edges of the yards alone. I call them the butterfly boys.
Wtf astilbe doesn’t look remotely like ‘a weed’.
So sorry. Maybe put a sign up ‘wildflowers do not mow or pull’
Use this as a way to find your way out.
Can you join a community garden or plant in a neighbor’s space? What about container garden on a patio or inside? Don’t let your landlord steal your joy!
Reminds me of a little prairie patch at a school I looked after for years that one day was mowed by the grounds crew. They did it for two years until I got them to stop and put signs up. I even have to put up white survey flags to denote the area to leave alone and not mow.
Most of the prairie plants that were mowed regularly for two summers didn’t come back so I had to reseed the area. The new generation is slowly emerging from seeds.
I understand your plight, I planted cucumbers and blue lake peas and they were all mowed over before they got the chance to get going. 🥲 There’s a leek fighting for its life that’s been chopped down 3 times since March.
I’m so sorry your garden got destroyed. 💔 I know it hurts to see your hard work in shreds.
Almost every landscape service in my area, including the posh ones, are men with big machines who indiscriminately use their big, loud machines on everything.
If it makes you feel any better… I have Columbine and Jewelweed that volunteered under a limbed up spruce tree. I spent a whole weekend weeding out all the garlic mustard, stinging nettles, bull thistle, and some dog strangling vine (tree was recently limbed up so I could reach those invasives). The natives thrived with the extra space & light and had *just* started blooming when my landscape maintenance guy mowed over everything.
He said afterwards that *as he was doing it* he thought “These are some really pretty weeds…”
Landscape guy is my husband.
This happened to me about a month ago. Was on year two of a small native garden and had finally gotten some eggs on a milkweed. Landlord hired some bozo who mowed the whole thing down.
On the bright side, the plants are coming back aggressively. But it doesn’t change the fact that the destroyed something special for absolutely no reason. This horrible “mow everything” culture has to change.
Every time this has ever happened to me, the guys leave the invasives to grow up 7ft, and anything remotely pretty, fragrant, or low lying is destroyed. Devastating
This happened to me every year renting with a similar front bed situation. The guys would weed whack my black eyed Susans and blanket flower…. I *know* you know these aren’t weeds. My first attempt at making a sign was ignored but when I got a bigger metal one that got in the way of their machines they finally stopped long enough to read it and left my garden alone.
I just don’t understand how the ,” mow it all within 2” of its life” look even has aesthetic value either. There’s this level of loneliness that permeates the U.S. and some of it is species loneliness. I cannot imagine not having the birds, dragonflies, and bees etc… including mosquitoes outside in my yard. I even saw a lacewing the other day and was so happy.
I have a great yard guy who now tells others in the neighborhood about my pollinator yard to explain why it’s a bit “messier”. He gets it and I’m so glad.
I feel like I need to just throw copies of “Braided Sweetgrass” at people or blast the audiobook on repeat to people who love mowing.
Honestly, even as a homeowner, I fight the other person that also owns my home on what to weed eat too.
Commercial landscape companies are still the bane of the industry. You legit can’t get them to give a shit.
Buy those cheap tiny little metal fences. But yeah what numbskull uses a weed eater on a planter
How sad! I agree with the person that says put a sign. And if you’re allowed maybe even a short fence, something cute that indicates what is growing there is on purpose.
We have a neighbor whose landlord’s yard people weed-ate our bed full of almost blooming poppies adjacent to their driveway. They had no clue they were poppies. Neighbors are great and knew we liked to garden and were horrified when they found out 😅.
I can’t believe landscapers just wipe out gardens indiscriminately. What do they think the purpose of what they’re being paid to do is? Do they think that plant nubs and dirt would look better?
I think people just pay for and do these things because they don’t care about anything and think that you’re “supposed to”.
Perhaps you should get some big pots and place them in the planter so they aren’t mistaken for weeds as readily
Same thing happens to me at my rental. I even put up a sign and they weed whacked the coneflowers right next to it. It’s very discouraging.
Aww my heart is feeling your pain. I used to have a senior landlady that would come around and hack things even though the yard was ugly and neglected before we moved in and we fully fixed it up. The neighbours would compliment it all the time but the landlady just didn’t see it. The lilac out front was never short enough for her so she was always yapping at us to clip it pretty much monthly. People who touch other people’s gardens don’t seem to realize what a violation it is. It feels like a theft or like assault on a pet or loved one for sure. I finally own a place in my 40s and being able to garden in peace has been wonderful for my mental wellbeing. I wish I could rent my basement out to you so you could join me. I hope that until you can get a space of your own you are able to find ways to protect your beloved plants and your own mental wellbeing.
They are all butchers! They are not gardeners. Our landscapers strimmed my borders of my beautiful plants, I had literally just put my hostas in! I confronted him and he said my boss wants all straight lines on the photos 🤯
I hate them, every other week they come and fuck everything up and I am paying for them to do it in my rent 🥴
I’m moving to a place with strict HOA rules. I’m going to be potting many native flowers to see how well that goes.
They killed two of my solidagos yesterday and wiped out the stakes I had put up to warn them not to cut. They just mowed straight through them. Just idiots with no brains doing the barest of the bare minimum effort.
Then there’s the landlord which steals most of my income to keep me in poverty.
Oh man I feel your pain. The time and care it took to grow them is enormous! Imagine if they worked for months to buy a car or something and you just completely wrecked it with no care, and just get to leave with no repercussions. Its sad that I have to use a damn car to relate it but thats modern humanity for you. You however are just supposed to suck it up and hope they grow back. Hugs ilI am sorry.
I’ve never had to deal with it directly myself, but I’ve always wondered if a bunch of rebar planted among the wildflowers might be the best way to send a message. Literally stop the mower or trimmer in it’s path.