INKster:

If your contractors in Quebec are anything like the ones in California, you'll have a much better chance teaching elephants how to avoid stepping on your plants. In the interest of time, they are there to get the addition on as quickly as possible and go home and cleaning up after themselves ranks a distant 12,876th on their priority list.

I'm sure others will have more ideas, but when I had my monstrous "Big Dig" project going on for 18 months, steps I took to minimize the damage were:

• Weeks before the project, hired laborers to help me dig up plants and put them in temporary containers until the work was over.

• Tried to convince the workers of designated areas for trash, which worked sometimes.

• Took pictures (mementos) of the workers in front of key plants and offered them prints of them in my garden to take home. This gave them greater understanding and a sense of "ownership" for the plants.

• Periodically offered pizza and beer. Many homeowners look at the people as the help, thus reinforcing the lack of respect for existing parts of the garden. Offering food is an inexpensive, yet appreciated gesture that will buy you good will when asking them to avoid dumping stuff on valuable plants.

• For plants that are short, but unmovable, build temporary frames with 2x4s as posts and plywood roofs.

• Sacrifice a part of the garden as a collection

  area for the trash.

I hope some this will help and I'm looking forward to reading other suggestions. Good luck.

spectre

INKster:

If your contractors in Quebec are anything like the ones in California, you'll have a much better chance teaching elephants how to avoid stepping on your plants. In the interest of time, they are there to get the addition on as quickly as possible and go home and cleaning up after themselves ranks a distant 12,876th on their priority list.

I'm sure others will have more ideas, but when I had my monstrous "Big Dig" project going on for 18 months, steps I took to minimize the damage were:

• Weeks before the project, hired laborers to help me dig up plants and put them in temporary containers until the work was over.

• Tried to convince the workers of designated areas for trash, which worked sometimes.

• Took pictures (mementos) of the workers in front of key plants and offered them prints of them in my garden to take home. This gave them greater understanding and a sense of "ownership" for the plants.

• Periodically offered pizza and beer. Many homeowners look at the people as the help, thus reinforcing the lack of respect for existing parts of the garden. Offering food is an inexpensive, yet appreciated gesture that will buy you good will when asking them to avoid dumping stuff on valuable plants.

• For plants that are short, but unmovable, build temporary frames with 2x4s as posts and plywood roofs.

• Sacrifice a part of the garden as a collection

  area for the trash.

I hope some this will help and I'm looking forward to reading other suggestions. Good luck.

spectre

INKster:

If your contractors in Quebec are anything like the ones in California, you'll have a much better chance teaching elephants how to avoid stepping on your plants. In the interest of time, they are there to get the addition on as quickly as possible and go home and cleaning up after themselves ranks a distant 12,876th on their priority list.

I'm sure others will have more ideas, but when I had my monstrous "Big Dig" project going on for 18 months, steps I took to minimize the damage were:

• Weeks before the project, hired laborers to help me dig up plants and put them in temporary containers until the work was over.

• Tried to convince the workers of designated areas for trash, which worked sometimes.

• Took pictures (mementos) of the workers in front of key plants and offered them prints of them in my garden to take home. This gave them greater understanding and a sense of "ownership" for the plants.

• Periodically offered pizza and beer. Many homeowners look at the people as the help, thus reinforcing the lack of respect for existing parts of the garden. Offering food is an inexpensive, yet appreciated gesture that will buy you good will when asking them to avoid dumping stuff on valuable plants.

• For plants that are short, but unmovable, build temporary frames with 2x4s as posts and plywood roofs.

• Sacrifice a part of the garden as a collection

  area for the trash.

I hope some this will help and I'm looking forward to reading other suggestions. Good luck.

spectre

Dear INKognito:
Befriend the contractor and lead foreman; let them know you want the garden preserved as much as is possible. Talk to them in terms of cost. Give them some figures re damages, replanting, purchase of new stock, etc. Estimate the worth of the garden in labor and materials. Estimate the worth of intangibles like not being able to replace mature clumps of perennials and older tree/shrub specimens, plants with sentimental value, and so on. Some may be priceless. Engage the homeowner in this discussion if it seems approppriate. Apply pressure - gently.

Remove what you can and make a path(s)if possible for the workers to use.

Put special,expensive,fragile, and/or easily transplanted specimens in a holding bed; replant when the work is completed. Be prepared to lose most of what is in their work areas.

Be there to "supervise" the scaffolding installation.

Cover plants briefly with breathable landscape fabric/tarps/old sheets on days they are scraping paint. Remove at the end of the work day; replace in the AM.

Removing old shingles is one of the dirtiest jobs in house renovation. The roofers throw the old shingle material all over the place with great abandon. The trouble with laying down tarps is that without being able to see the plants beneath, the workers tend to walk on the tarps, throw lumber on the tarps, push eqipment over the tarps, etc. --as if there were nothing beneath. A real problem . . .

Look at it as a chance to re-do the garden, correcting things you weren't happy with, as well as a chance to make a bit more money -- assuming the owners are going to have the garden restored after the house renovations are completed.

I have had experience with just this sort of problem on several occasions. Difficult, indeed.

Ginger

When we had our (former)house re-roofed I "fenced" things I couldn't move--I got some old saw-horses and coralled plants, and then put a piece of plywood on the top. And then, wehen the roofers were done for the day, removed the plywood so the poor plants could get a LITTLE sun. It really helped--and it only took 2 weeks to re-roof---so the plants didn't suffer TOO much.

Luckily, with this "big dig" the garden beds are only marginally involved. I moved a couple of things, and the rest seems to be holding up.

melanie

My.o2 & HO ...
Pictures, pictures, pictures! Before and after. Talking to the contractor and workers helps up to a point. Have to agree with digging and removing what you can framing the rest/. The roofing may not take too long... the added half a story may very well be another thing.
Once upon a time.....
I had just finished a front garden/foundation project, while and unknown to me, the home owner decided he did not like #1 the paint color of the front of his house and #2 the rock veneer on the chimney was all wrong. When I returned two days later total devistation, masons on the roof tossing stone, painters scaffolding smack dab in the middle of shrubs just planted and the newly created path through the perennials. The coup d'gras (sp?) homer ( short for home owner) refused to pay for services rendered because the garden was "totally unsatifactory and a horrible, horrible, wretched mess" (true words spoken!!! some thing you just don't forget!! lol ) At that time in my life I was ready for a coup d'etat....... deep breathe........ luckily I had the photos (before and after) when we went to small claims court.
Okay..... worse case scenario and not quite what you presented. I guess my point (yes I have one) is save what you can before these guys get hold of your garden. good luck.
P

It will take one day of standing in the garden with a baseball bat. Tell the contractors that anything they do to the plants, you'll do to them.

Hopefully they won't bend over and kiss the tulips.

jb

All (well, except jb's) excellent suggestions, thank you all for your support the walking on tarps tip alone saved me a heart attack. The garden has a pond and stream with a rubber liner which, next to $1000 Japanese maples, is my biggest worry, should I cover with ply wood or fill with something, straw, sand? one brick shard could cause big problems.

Supports under the main branches and create a reinforced chickenwire cage/fence around it.
an added thought: With a large sign next to your maple that says "NOOOOO Don't Do IT!!!".
8>P

Seriously though hog wire and chicken wire can save many things. Covering your pond with ply wood might be a good idea. 1/2" PVC pipe bends well use 3/8" rebar for stakes/ the PVC slips right over it and can make quick sturdy frames for many of your shrubs and trees. Think --- mini hoop house when you design it /covering with chicken wire or hardware cloth instead of plastic. hope this gets the creative juices going. or makes sense to you.
*>P man

Perry--what a nasty homer. Glad you kicked behind in court. INK--pictures sound like a plan! ANd I covet your maple...what kind is it? My neighbor has a lovely acer palmatum of some sort--weeping, and in the fall the leaves are golden. LEETLE bitty tree--even though it must be 30+ years old. No ones knows what kind it is...

Take care of that tree!

melanie