Beginner Gardening: DG Anonymous, 1 by meezersfive

meezersfive wrote:
Oh dear, you are forcing me to reiterate the story I have told here before, so if you've heard it, just skim past this and pretend I didn't write it.

We sold our trilevel when we were building this house, and I was able to move move some plants in order to save them. Unfortunately, in the process of bringing in fill and storing lumber they got bured or crushed. We moved in December. When spring rolled around, I drove by the old place and chatted briefly with the DH of the new owners because he was outside. He had mowed down the garden bed I had in front under the windows, just four o'clocks and artemesia which made a nice privacy screen for the lower level. Went home and started thinking, if he mowed down the front, what was he doing in the back where I had multiple beds. I began to fret. I had planted a variety of lilies back along the lot line, I had three raised beds with varieties of salvia, etc., there were beautiful white iris that were decades old that I had already taken from move to move...well, you know how it is.

The more I thought about it, the more upset I got. If he mowed down the front, the back was in serious jeopardy. Very early one May morning, before dawn had even thought of cracking, I dressed myself in my black sweats, put on DH's black baseball cap, threw my shovel and a couple of plastic bins in the back seat of my car and headed over there...... DH's warning echoing in my head, "If you get arrested, don't call me because I'm not coming to bail you out!" It still wasn't light yet when I got to the old neighborhood, but I thought it was unwise to park in front of the house, so I turned up the side street, where it would only be a one house stroll to get to the back yard of our old place.

The neighbor's kitchen light was on, so I could see pretty well where I was going. Then I heard scraping noises...the idiot was out raking something off his patio. Heart pounding, I stayed back along the lot line, looking for the threatened lilies. Couldn't find them. Knelt on the ground and slid my hands over the area where they had been. Nada. Hmmmm. Maybe I was disoriented in the dark. Dared to turn on my little tiny flash light. Nope. Gone. By now the neighbor had gone back in his house, so I ventured further into the yard. Raised beds gone. The back yard was on a slope down to the house and the patio area was surrounded by a retaining wall. Snuck further down, no iris. No Carpet of Flowers roses. Absolutely no nothing! Gone. Everything. Unbelievable. Who would rip out perennials that required virtually no care?

DH was leaving for work when I got home and didn't offer much sympathy for the devastation. I was furious. Wouldn't you think they could have called and said, we're not into gardening, and if you want some of these plants, come and get them? What terrible people. I hope the basement leaks, I hope the roof leaks, I hope their children are caught selling crack. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

What was the topic, oh, right, liberating plants that are otherwise going to die...so I guess I didn't wander too far off......still burns me up though. Let me see if I can find a picture of the back when it was still ......sniff..........beautiful............sniff.

Gotta go pack a box.