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esther_b

The Destruction Begins...

esther_b
10 years ago

As I was leaving to go to work this morning at 7:30, I saw, 2 buildings down, a woodchipper truck and heard the drone of multiple chainsaws. The object of destruction was an exquisite old pine tree which looked exactly like a fine bonsai writ large. I abandoned my walk to the bus and headed toward the agents of destruction, the "landscape workers". Their Bowery-bum-looking boss was leaning against someone's car. Good thing it wasn't mine. I asked him why they were cutting down a perfectly healthy tree.

The surly reply was, "Because the management said to. You must be So-and-So. They told us about YOU."

He then told me, with a smile, that I had received a letter telling me they were going to cut down my dead tree (and plow under my garden around it). "You bettah get your stuff out from derr," he added.

I immediately called my school and told them I was going to be late because of a sudden emergency. I explained about the hostas. They understood perfectly. I then ran into my apartment, grabbing shovel and giant garbage bags, and ran back out. I furiously dug up all the hostas and heuchies from under the tree and carefully placed them in the garbage bags, tying them shut to preserve moisture. I also unlocked Garden Cat from the tree and hid it and its white background pot behind the Obligatory Bushes.

A passerby wanted to know what was going on. When I explained that the "landscape people" who were cutting down the beautiful tree yonder were going to come and cut down not only this dead tree but then plow under this garden, she was appalled. She stopped and helped me to load the hostas into the bags. .

See? Even a stranger had more regard for the beauty of the garden than the knuckle-walking co-op management and board. Left to them, they will just replace all the trees around the complex, which are a major reason for its beauty, with grass.

Will post pics of the garden with the voids left by the dug-up hostas later when I get home. The only hosta I could not save was one of the Blue Cadets, as its roots were just too intertwined with the tree roots. But I got the other one out intact and see that it could readily be divided into 2 or 3 plants.

Oh, the outrage!!

Comments (3)

  • prairiemoon2 z6b MA
    10 years ago

    Thank you so much for posting this, because this and other stories I've readon online about coops, have convinced me never to live in one. :-) Sorry about your hostas and how frustrated you must feel.

  • tepelus
    10 years ago

    This makes me furious. I really hate bullies, no matter their age.

    Karen

  • esther_b
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    As I rounded the block toward home, I expected to see a hole in the lawn where once stood my hosta garden. Instead, I arrived home to see the dead tree still there and the holes where I frantically dug up my hostas this morning and stuffed them into garbage bags. The "landscape workers" were nowhere to be seen. To think I had missed an hour of work (and will likely be docked for it) for nothing! I had some errands to run, so I jumped in my car to carry them out when I spied the "landscape workers" busy taking down several large trees around the corner. I know that the gorgeous pine tree they took down this morning was perfectly healthy. I don't know why they were taking down the other large trees, I only saw the large branches already on the ground. Apparently this is the way 3rd-class "landscape workers" landscape: if a tree dies, they remove it and then seed the site with grass seed. They plant no more trees, to make it easier on themselves. Eventually, the heavily treed grounds will simply become a sterile landscape of the weeds/clover mixture they claim is a lawn.

    I do hope that my HOSTAS and HEUCHIES are OK in their sealed garbage bags for another night. The soil was moist around their root balls. I went straightaway to the nursery (Errand #1) to pick up the edging stones, some topsoil, Plant-tone, and a big bag of mulch to convert 15' x 18" of the lawn to hosta-garden in front of my existing Obligatory Bushes garden. By the time I got back, it was getting too dark to do the job. So, as soon as I come home tomorrow, I will be able to start turning over the soil and improving it with the topsoil, so I can transplant the hostas and heuchies.

    I got a very large glazed ceramic pot for 50% off at Home Depot, because it had a couple of very minor chips off the glaze. Nail polish will hide those chips. I will put this 16" pot to the left of the Obligatory Bushes, inside the new edging line, to showcase 3 of the tiniest mini-hostas and the mini-heuchie Ginger Snap in the middle. Ginger Snap did not seem to thrive when planted in the ground, so maybe it will take off in this pot.

    The transplanting of the hostas and heuchies to the new garden strip to be dug tomorrow has so far cost me $100 in materials to make it happen. All because of this kindergarten-style power play by the co-op manager. What a travesty.

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