Oh no!! LOOK what they did to their yard!!

[MaryMary]

I'm curious to know if anyone else sees the things other people do to their yards and gardens, and get a little ...baffled? ...upset? ...mad?... as to "What the heck were they thinking?!"


There used to be a very sweet, slightly demented, senile old lady that lived next to me. She once brought me a little dog to "babysit" because her kitties were coming for a visit, and they kept whacking it on the head. (In truth, I thought she had gotten a puppy, and wanted to shield it from her grandchildren. I had heard "the kiddies were coming for a visit." No, no, it was a toy, a bobble-head dog, like the dachshunds that people used to put in their cars!!) But that's another story.

Anyway, she had a beautiful yard. She had peonies, tulips, daffodils, jonquils, lilies, hyacinths, roses, periwinkles, lily-of-the-valley, a trumpet vine and a forsythia bush. She had a little bench, surrounded by pea gravel, so she didn't have to mow or weed there. It was a very nice little yard.

Once she was no longer able to take care of herself, her son moved her into a nursing home, and sold the house. Now I have new neighbors. (They've been there two years now, and they're still "new.") They don't appreciate the flowers.

He took a chainsaw, and annihilated the forsythia and trumpet vine. The horrible grinding noise I heard one day was him, he had lowered the blades on the mower, and was going at the rose bush from all angles, trying to kill it. He doesn't understand bulbs, that the foliage has to stay after the bloom to absorb light for next year, so he mows them as soon as they are done flowering. Where she used to have 40-50 jonquils every year, this year there is one lonely little flower.

He's mowed everything. The only reason the peonies are still there is the little brick wall that surrounds them. "Well, I knew that was something..."



I know I'm not the only one that appreciates other people's yards and gardens. What have you seen? (It doesn't have to be as elaborate as my neighbor.) Maybe it's just a big, pretty tree you saw every day on your way to work, gone now...



What have the new people done?

 

[johnny canoe]

Oh I hear ya. I have a customer that cut down every tree in her yard, hates birds, and I stopped her from swatting at a honey bee when I was helping her plant Petunias.

 

[Owdboggy]

Been there, seen that. Our front garden where we used to live was visited by hundreds of people, the new owners dug it all out and turned it into a car parking area.

 

[Chuck]

You can do like I did. I moved to where there aren't any neighbors.

 

[marlingardener]

Oh, the heartache! We had a wonderful 100 year old American Elm in our garden, and a few branches overhung the neighbor's yard. He wanted to cut some limbs to protect his metal shed, and we discussed at length where and what to cut. We even offered to have an arborist come trim, at our expense. Well, the idiot and his even more idiotic father-in-law managed to whack and lop, and destroyed the tree. We lost a valued tree and its shade, the idiot lost good neighbors.
I've seen "crepe murder" when folks just chop off a crepe myrtle tree. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/crape_murder/crape_murder2.jpg
"Topping" of trees is common here. It encourages disease, water sprouts, and looks absolutely horrid.
At gardening classes we've taught, we always stress that if you don't know what the plant is, or how to care for it, stay away from it until you learn!

 

[roadrunner]

Watering lawns (grass) irks me every time I see it, especially when it's either raining, about to rain or after a ton of rain

 

[MaryMary]

Been there, seen that. Our front garden where we used to live was visited by hundreds of people, the new owners dug it all out and turned it into a car parking area.

That is awful. The least they could have done was go around to the neighbors and ask if anyone wanted your flowers!! Or had the realtor try to get in touch with you to see if you wanted them.



I've been over to his house twice now, with my trowel in hand. The first time was when he cut a big branch off one of the trees, and when I inquired, he told me he was going to make that part of the yard a driveway. And he raked the pea gravel over the lily-of-the-valley. When he finished with that, he got in his car and left.

I was weeding ( ...and had had a couple beers) the second time. I was digging out a dandelion that had established itself under the lilies, when he got out the mower. After pleasantries, I asked him, "Before you mow it over, would you mind if I dug out some of the lily-of-the-valley?" After I showed him which one it was, he let me dig out as much as I wanted!

 

[vette-kid]

Oh, the heartache! We had a wonderful 100 year old American Elm in our garden, and a few branches overhung the neighbor's yard. He wanted to cut some limbs to protect his metal shed, and we discussed at length where and what to cut. We even offered to have an arborist come trim, at our expense. Well, the idiot and his even more idiotic father-in-law managed to whack and lop, and destroyed the tree. We lost a valued tree and its shade, the idiot lost good neighbors.
I've seen "crepe murder" when folks just chop off a crepe myrtle tree. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/crape_murder/crape_murder2.jpg
"Topping" of trees is common here. It encourages disease, water sprouts, and looks absolutely horrid.
At gardening classes we've taught, we always stress that if you don't know what the plant is, or how to care for it, stay away from it until you learn!

We see "crepe murder" in or area all the time. I'm about the only one who doesn't do this, but I can figure of why they do it? Ours seem to do just fine and have more blooms than anyone else and sooner than anyone else. What do they think they are doing?

 

[Becky]

Oh no, it makes me really sad to hear that Hopefully this will be a learning experience for them at least!