Northeast Gardening: Plant collector or garden designer? , 0 by bbrookrd

bbrookrd wrote:
Victor, I spoke too harshly about them all and I beg to differ about one HWY worker in Williamsville Vt . I have a culvert that takes snow melt down from the hill and under the road and then under part of my garden on the brook side of the road to discharge in Baker Brook that became blocked one spring during a major flooding that caused massive damage to our area. There was a huge geyser shooting out of the road and water was flooding down the road and threatening to cause major damage to houses including ours. This guy comes with a backhoe at 5 in the morning to help me as I was up trying unblock the culvert. He says he has to dig up part of my garden and the road to free the blockage. I was sad. He says he will get the culvert replaced at some point. But before he leaves he carefully moves my clumps of plants to a shady spot with his backhoe. It turn out that culvert part from the 1800's was stone and had collapsed. He finally comes back after several weeks and he puts in the new culvert, then he replants the clumps of plants and levels and seeds the grass area between the road and garden and covers it all with straw. Then he comes back and checks on it from time to time as he knows I am not there often. He even watered it at least once according to neighbors. Talk about a good guy. Here are some of the plants he saved. Patti