Garden Variety Problems

 

Our friend T, who is currently living at the Summit house, is The Best. Recently, however, she hired someone to clean up the leaves in the yard there who was ... NOT the best. Because I believe in people, I am choosing to believe that he wanted to do a good job and prepare the yard for winter. But what he did instead, due to a lack of knowledge or who knows what else, was to decimate it, and sadly, that happened when no one was around to witness the destruction until it was too late.

Not everyone is as devoted as we are to leaving stems up for pollinators, etc., and I get that. But this was, um, extreme.

The lilac my mom planted as one of her last things cut to a stump. The sour cherry tree that overproduces every summer cut back drastically, and the wisteria next to it also. The smoke tree hacked up. Banks of 50+ year old peonies scraped to the ground, along with phlox, iris, siberian iris, sedum, amsonia, rhubarb, lemon balm, wild petunias, astilbe, joe pie weed, false indigo, native white violets, scilla, hosta, ferns, coral bells, bleeding hearts, bee balm, and more. A planter of grasses and fireweed just gone. Zinnias we were saving for seed ripped out. Our diverse native garden, build up over the last two years with a Lawns to Legumes grant, obliterated. Multiple hydrangea bushes and rose bushes cut down to the ground, as well as the nanny berry and the small serviceberry. All the topsoil and mulch scraped up and the irrigation lines exposed. Even parts of the weathered cedar fence were replaced for some reason with green-treated pine. There was a huge stack of yard bags left by the trash (which would have added over $100 to our trash bill if we had not caught it in time).

T feels terrible (which she should not, it's not her fault!). Patrick has already spent hours spreading some mulch we had left, and we're trying to arrange a compost and soil drop and someone to spread it to protect what's left and the irrigation lines before it gets too cold (not looking good on that front).

We're hopeful that some of it is sturdy and might come back in the spring, but we know that it won't be the lush, green look we wanted for Beatrix's graduation party. I'm sad to lose the heirloom and native plants — many gifts from others' gardens, or that have been there my entire life, or were part of the huge garden redesign my mom did in the years before she died. As I said above, T is working really hard to mitigate the damage done, which makes me feel almost worse — it can't be great to have to look out at that every day and the whole situation is terrible for everyone involved. I'm also aware this is a very first-world problem, and despite the cost and the emotional hit, it's just a yard. But it's one of a few things that are hitting me hard right now, so here I am in the midst of it.

ETA - Dude is refusing to refund T the substantial money she paid for this destruction and is pushing for MORE money! Let me know if you need an anti-recommendation for yard and snow work....