An unapologetic plant geek shares advice and opinions on gardening, the contrived and the natural landscape, as well as occasional topics from the other side of the gate.

September 15, 2015

Gloom Day

     Let me share you with a gardener's nightmare. Imagine you are recovering from a knee surgery that keeps confined to either the bed, or the couch. Next, imagine you are having your roof rebuilt at the same time as your surgery and subsequent recovery, because the roofing company was three weeks late getting started. Imagine also that you have had repeated conversations with the roofing company about how much your garden means to you, and that all parties have agreed upon several designated "drop zones", in order to minimize damage. Now imagine that on the first day of construction that pallets of heavy roofing materials are deliberately unloaded into your garden beds, obliterating everything planted underneath, this so the delivery driver does not run the risk of getting fined by the city for blocking public right-of-way access, even though there are several people ready to unload the contents of the pallets instantaneously into designated staging areas. Now go back to that couch for a minute, and imagine lying there on your back, looking out your windows, as the accumulated debris of a 100 year old roof is allowed to rain down into your garden, with no regard as to the aforementioned drop zones, and at this point all you can do is close the blinds. This, my gardening friends, was my living nightmare.

     If there can be any bright spots in all of this, there were only a couple of things killed outright; the perennials may recover by next spring; I am now off the couch and walking without crutches; and I think we've gotten a good roof, but boy is the garden ugly right now.

Newly prostrate Crinum

Rhododendron x 'Red Ruffles'

Impatiens hybrida 'Fusion Glow Yellow'

Stipa tenuissima

Carex oshimensis 'Everillo'

Hosta 'Pineapple Upside-down Cake' 

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Amethyst'

Helleborus x hybridus 'Spring Promise Sally' and Ophiopogon nigrescens

Tricyrtis hirta

Not the Designated Drop Zone

     After seeing this, I highly recommend you visit Carol at May Dreams Garden, who hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, where you can see gardens more uplifting. 

20 comments:

  1. Oh, you have my sympathy. It was Mother Nature that tried to do me in. A huge tree fell in a storm last Friday, wiping out three flower beds.
    Glad you are recovering well from the knee surgery
    Lea

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  2. I believe this is the appropriate occasion to say OMG! As you say, this is the nightmare all of us dread. We were lucky last summer to have our house painted by one person working by himself who was very careful of our garden. I hope you were able to get some financial break since they did not follow the agreed upon plan.

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  3. Oh Les, I am so sorry! And I suppose after those painful insults you also had to pay them?

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  4. You definitely have my sympathy. I know at some point I'm going to have to hire someone to paint my house, and your nightmare is my worst fear. I've had a lot of similar damage all summer from a band of marauding raccoons. It will soon be winter, and your garden will need cutting back anyway. Then in spring, you get a do-over!

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  5. I think you will be amazed next spring with the plants coming back, and you may even look at the new empty spots as opportunities. I hope so, anyway.

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  6. What is their justification for ignoring what you asked about where to unload everything? I'd make them pay for the damage to the garden. How incredibly rude of them. I'm glad you're up and about. Can you swing your leg far enough to reach their arse?

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  7. Oh, you poor gardener! Your poor garden! Things will mostly recover but that doesn't help your feelings right now. I can relate to the helpless feeling -- I am recovering from gall bladder surgery. Told not to pick up anything heavy, I had a hard time not bending over and yanking on weeds....

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  8. I'm so sorry! I have no words, except those that shouldn't be uttered among polite company.

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  9. So sorry to hear this. Your photos documenting the carnage are truly heartbreaking. But perennials should bounce back next spring (after all, they are PERENNIAL!) and it sounds like you up and about yourself.

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  10. First, I hope you are well on your way to full recovery. Second, this must be the most painful GBBD ever! What a terrible thing to happen to gardener. The garden will recover though, lost plants will be replaced (maybe too soon to see this as an opportunity...) How did the roof come out?

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  11. Argh, I would go crazy (and I do mean murderous rage crazy). Just keep telling yourself that everything was ready to go dormant anyway, and should come up looking good as new next spring. In the meantime, there's not much you can do so take care of yourself and heal!

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  12. Misery upon misery! I do hope you and your garden recover in time. Don't rush it. I send you my healing thoughts and well wishes.

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  13. OK, so my blood pressure went through the roof just thinking about it! I can only imagine how you felt observing this and not being able to do anything about it. I nightmare, indeed!!!! So glad it's over for you, and that your physical recovery is going well. Yes, I guess it's a good thing this happened now and not in the spring as the plants were just getting going--or worse, in the summer when they were beautifully filled in and thriving. Take care of yourself, Les!

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  14. I feel your pain. Having had this same previous experience I had my most recent roof replaced in January when everything looked dead anyway. I still cringed at the carelessness shown to plantings. Good luck on the recovery (you and your plants!)

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  15. A nightmare indeed! Hope you didn't try to painfully get outside to talk to the roofers. They probably didn't understand English anyway. None of the ones who put on our new roof spoke or understood English. Vikki in VA.

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  16. A gardener's nightmare for sure. I am needing a new roof soon . . .
    Ray

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  17. What A-holes ! I hope you vented at the company and I wonder if they knocked anything off the bill for the damage ?

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  18. Definitely a 'Gloom Day'. So sorry! Recovery AND a new roof all at once? Geez, not fun. I think your garden will recover tho and hope your knee is well too.

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  19. Oh dear. So sorry. Hope at least your knee is all recovered.

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  20. Yikes. So sorry for you and I hope things recover far more quickly than expected (yourself included!)
    Sometimes you're surprised by how well things come back, and it seems I've tested that theory more times than I should. For some reason there are always odd projects being forced upon us and things always need redigging and unloading...

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