That really sucks! I’m sorry that happened... I would be pretty PO’ed too. Would like to see the Watermelon plant pic when it’s recovered. Always looking for cool companion plants.

I'm so sorry..my husband weed wacked my bee balm..it was sheared off flat..I noticed a couple of weeks ago that it was coming up..when I said very nicely "did you cut my plant?" he said "maybe (pause) I thought it was a weed"..I don't like weed killers or string trimmers..

I do. It's early in the season. Chin up.

I don't think I could live somewhere that I had to worry about random people trampling and destroying my garden. My blood pressure would be through the roof!

my neighbor had a crew come to spread mulch..she DIDN'T want to hire them..her husband feels bad that he can't do it (heart patient) and wants to save her from the hard work..but she had to redo their sloppy work and had trampled hostas..she caught one of them pulling her "weeds" which were astilbes..sadly many workers need more plant knowledge..

Nicholsworth, it is criminal to turn people loose with poisons, leaf blowers, and potentially dangerous equipment who cannot read the instructions necessary for safe use or even understand verbal instructions. It is patently stupid to hire such people to care for plants, where a lot of love, care, and money is involved. We have a lot of toddlers, young kids, and pets around here who could be exposed to the poisons they spray around in such a careless fashion. They used their leaf blowers to get rid of the fallen leaves on my garden and thereby blew away all the mulch and exposed the entire soaker hose system. The dust they created caused my neighbor untold allergy suffering. They knocked over a large container garden, left it on its side. I'm just grateful they didn't pull out any of my plants, mistaking them for weeds, but they're too lazy to weed by hand--a small blessing. I just had to spend about $40 to replace missing or damaged plant I.D. tags. Had this landscape company hired better educated employees, this damage would not have occurred.

I know of a hosta dealer who had drift spray damage that did in all her tc hosta babies, she totalled up the replacement costs of the hundreds of plants that were damaged or killed and sent the bill to the company that sprayed the farm field next to her place. They whined about it, but they paid her every last penny she asked for. Mostly because a lawsuit is always going to cost them more, not to mention state/local regulatory fines, and they know it.

Many states, counties, and cities have very strict laws about spraying practices for a wide variety of chemicals, and some areas require a license for each worker hired by a company. You might check to see what your local and state laws cover. You might also write a letter to the editor of your local paper pointing out that company X is not following standard spraying practices and detail the damage they caused.

Contacting a state or local regulatory office is another option. It won't bring back your beautiful plants, but it might prevent the same damage from being inflicted on others.

Sorry Esther.....I do enough damage on my own....wouldn't be happy with others adding to it.

It all about money---the landscaping company must be hiring the cheapest help they can find.

I know what you mean about waiting for spring for so long and then having to witness damage to your garden. It is terribly disappointing. The good news is that the season has just begun and the plants have time to recover.

The Carnival Watermelon heuchie took a huge hit from the weedkiller; most of the leaves facing a certain side have ugly spots of dead on them. I ALSO found this evening that the beautiful rock-on-brick border wall I built last year, with concrete tinted faux rocks cemented onto a row of tan bricks, was broken apart in one area. I suspect this was a result of careless mowing. Looks like a bomb hit my border wall right there. It had to have been quite a strong blow to rip apart bricks which had been cemented together. That's how much these ignorant pieces of garbage care about the actual landscape around here.

Why live somewhere that causes you so much aggravation?

Esther, while I/we sympathize wholeheartedly with you I found your last sentence referring to the landscape crew as “ignorant pieces of garbage” an unfortunate choice of words.

I have always thought how fortunate you are in that management allows you (as a resident in a quadrant setting as you’ve described in past posts) ) to include a garden as part of their existing landscaping. There are many that wouldn’t. Unfortunately events such as these are bound to occur from time to time - it costs $ for them to hire a skilled crew and it appears management decided that no skill, just general labour is required to spray, mow grass, spread mulch, etc. :(

Far from being unsympathetic, I have no idea what recourse you may have as a tenant (as opposed to a homeowner) that is “borrowing” space in which to garden. You could speak with management and ask - could the crew kindly be more mindful in future?

On the positive side, you have a lovely garden which affords anyone admiring it pleasure, including myself. I love seeing the progress and growth each year and what may be new in your garden. The uglies will disappear with time and your beautiful garden will shine again. As angry as you may be, please don’t do anything that may jeopardize your continued enjoyment of the lovely garden you have created.

Josephine, this is a co-op, not an apartment rental building. I AM a homeowner. The management is very much, like HOAs across the nation, into conformity. Every unit must look exactly like the next. Trees and other things the poor "landscape workers" must move themselves around are bad. They have removed many beautiful trees, citing that they are "too close to a building", which is nonsense. It was to make it easier for the "landscape workers" (who are very rude to me) to be able to simply go back and forth mowing rather than have to swerve around a tree. This latest explosive-looking damage to the brick border is simply inexcusable, and if I see those little perps, I WILL confront them about it. They have no business working for a landscape company, as they have no knowledge or feeling for landscapes. Am I supposed to sit back and allow them to systematically destroy my hard-won garden little by little from carelessness and callousness? And, it costs me money to repair and replace the damage they do, as well as time. How wonderful it must be for you who have large beautiful private homes without such incompetents damaging your gardens.

I’m sorry, Esther for misunderstanding how your residency works but I understand it now. No, I wasn’t implying you “sit back and allow them to systematically destroy your hard-won garden little by little from carelessness and callousness” - I don’t think anyone of us would stand for that. What I was trying to be was tactful.

I am no longer among those with large beautiful private homes but have sustained damage and carelessness done to my gardens by others on occasion ... and I can still empathize.

You appear to have an ongoing issue regarding your garden and the “maintenance crew” where you live. I wish you luck in trying to get this resolved.

Thanks for understanding, Josephine. We can now add my beautiful little dwarf spirea bush, which is in bud, to the victims. The spirea is covered 360 degrees in pepper-like dark brown spots from the weedkiller and the Carnival Watermelon heuchie looks totally destroyed. There are a couple of affected leaves on another favorite heuchie, Rio. And tonight, I discovered someone or something (squirrel most likely) completely and utterly dug up my entire hosta Cameo, leaving a 6" deep hole. That makes me suspicious it wasn't a squirrel, as I don't think they dig a nearly circular hole even deeper than the hosta was planted. Chalk up another $10-15 hosta. So far, this is the worst year yet for vandalism on my garden, and it really breaks my heart. When I saw the spirea and the completely missing hosta, I burst into long-delayed tears!

Esther, have you tried going directly to the landscaping company instead of the co-op management? If you go in complaining they will ignore you, but if you ask for some help they might send a supervisor out to look at your situation and teach his workers to be more careful. Do you attend the annual meetings of your co-op?

Misery loves company as they say...I discovered crushed brick and mortar "shrapnel" dumped over four of my hostas at the side of the house during some construction late last year. I now have a dozen or so additional pots filled with pieces of hostas that last year were nice-sized clumps. So many crushed pieces of crown. Sigh.

You could take a slow stroll around the neighbourhood and see if you spot Cameo anywhere? Take a neighbour with you - two pairs of eyes better than one. I also have a dwarf spiraea and having something happen to it would upset me to no end. I feel your pain. After the pent up tears of pain and frustration, pour yourself a stiff drink. The temporary balm might soothe you.

A thought re spirea - if you shear it gently/sparsely as if pruning, it might respond with new leaf nodes which would aid with recovery? I'm not a shrubologist, lol but it's always worked for me - albeit under different circumstances. Regardless, Esther, I hope you get to enjoy the good weather and long weekend ahead.

ZKathy, that company is totally nasty and contemptuous. That's where their substandard workers get their attitude. I am quite sure that, upon hearing the damage wrought by their workers, they would laugh a nasty laugh and say something like Awwww, tooooo bad. And Josephine---if I had an electric pruner, it would be very easy to shear the entire bush, but all I have is a pair of hand pruners. Small ones. I just spent an hour last week meticulously snipping out all the dead branches and unproductive twigs on my spirea, and it was looking simply gorgeous. Now, it looks like someone emptied a giant pepper shaker all over it. The Watermelon heuchera has nearly all the full sized leaves spattered with dead spots and they are dying. The spirea was looking sort of collapsed yesterday, but I couldn't be sure if it was the rain or if the shrub was dying. I noticed a branch of my baby rose bush About Face sporting dead drooping leaves, and a couple of other heucheras with dead spots. I checked with the neighbors in the next 2 buildings and saw that their gardens had suffered slight damage on a few leaves. Nothing like the hit I took.

The hole where Cameo used to be is about 4-5" deep and very circular as you can see in the picture. Does that look like the work of a squirrel or a human thief?

Squirrels dig up plants but don’t eat hostas. They are seeing what was recently buried in freshly disturbed soil. This spring I have had numerous plants dug up but left in container, all due to squirrels. I hope things calm down so you can enjoy your hard work soon.