Serial Killer Landscaper

I just came home to find two beautiful, healthy, thriving Morning Glory plants, cut down by careless weed-whacking! This is really unacceptable and very upsetting. I nursed them from seedlings, even marked them with stakes and mulched around so the workers could see them, and they just cut them down! They were doing so well and I was so enjoying watching them grow, waiting for them to bloom... And now they've been tragically cut down. I can't stand it!! How could this have happened?? And it's not the first time! I hired this landscaping company that came highly recommended on Angie's List to do a cleanup and mow&blow/regular maintenance, and the first time they came to do a mow & blow, they cut down all of my Morning Glory seedlings. I had even placed stakes next to them so they wouldn't weed whack them! I complained to the manager and she apologized profusely and promised to speak to the crew. Luckily, I had planted seeds directly into the ground near the seedlings, just in case they didn't transplant well. Good thing I did, because they have grown beautifully and are now climbing all over the fence... Until today! I am so devastated! I LOVED those damn Morning Glories!! How can a professional landscaping company be so incompetent and destructive?

I have emailed them and am waiting to hear back. I am probably going to cancel the agreement with them. It is just too devastating.

Oh, no, sorry to hear that!

I fired our last "landscapers" when they weed-whacked a raspberry hedge full of berries, picked up two columnar apple trees in large pots by the trunks (I assume, because the rootball came loose from the pot), and heaved them into a raised bed. Never again.

Ohh, boy. That sucks. Sorry, Jed, I would be extremely upset, too. I'm always shocked when the people you hire to do a job like that seem not to care at all what they do.

I spoke to them and they said basically that they thought it was a weed vine because it wasn't "in a bed". So aside from the mulched area, the stakes, and the fact that it's the only vine climbing up the fence, apparently it wasn't clearly marked enough. Grrrr

The manager promised to try to find some Morning Glories to replace them. I'm just a little frustrated still that they didn't accept responsibility, and then the foreman refused to come look at the scene of the crime because apparently HE knew exactly where the MGs were but the new guy didn't. So, blame the new guy, and the customer. Smooth.

The jury is still out on this one. If it's not resolved I'll drop the name so future victims of serial herbicide will be forewarned.

I'm sad.

In the past, this has happened to me, and my company has always made good in the end, even finding and replacing some oddball perienial I got at the garden club sale.

We have had the same problem in the past too. It may be worthwhile to take the landscaper on a tour of your garden before any work is done and point out what are not weeds.

Tabby knows that beautiful Daylilies than she and Tomcat so gernerously gave me a couple of years ago, were slaughtered by a weed-wacker a few weeks ago. I was so upset. Fortunatelythey are growing back, but I doubt they will bloom this year---funny because my guy blamed the new guy, too.

I'm sorry to hear this. I am having the same problem! It is infuriating- especially when you grow plants from seed or spend a lot of time and money seeking out rare flowers. I spoke with my guy twice about it last month, he apologized and said it wouldn't happen again. Last week, I saw one of the guys leaving with some plants with purple flowers in his hand- it was so odd because, it's been discussed that they are only to mow and leaf blow- no weeding. I couldn't for the life of me even figure out what weed I had with purple flowers! And I just didn't think quick enough in that moment he was walking to the truck to leave.

I went out to look around and noticed pieces of three plants in my front bed that had been sliced off and the actual plants were gone! I can only imagine he accidentally sliced parts of them and then figured he should take the plants so it wasn't too obvious?!? When I emailed the owner he only apologized again -with no offer to replace or credit! We are debating sending in our monthly payment minus $20 for the three plants taken.

Today was the last straw- I came home to more flowers sliced and thus promptly emailed to say, no more service is necessary. Now I feel like an idiot to have to find and start over with someone else..... Uh

I was very upset last year when the landscaping crew decided to "trim" all my shrubs as if they were hedges, taking out much of the low growth in the process. (If I had wanted a hedge effect rather than the soft bushy look I had been training the plants to assume, I would have shaped them as hedges.)

This company had been under strict instruction to stay away from my shrubs but even that did not stop them. I complained to the owner of the company who replied that "sometimes his crews freelanced." I took to mean that they did work they were told not to do. The matter of fact manner in which he said this made me even more upset.

Fortunately, this was a great year for shrubs and everything is growing back just fine. Still, I can well understand how sick the OP must feel just now.

I feel your pain. If it helps, I've been doing my own gardening for 20 years and have made every one of the mistakes in this thread. Weed-wacked unintended plants, maimed shrubs and pulled up things I thought were weeds, but then remembered I planted the previous season.

It's just part of having a garden...and why there's always next season

But mbaldwin, you are a homeowner---theses guys are supposed to be pros, that's the difference. In my case, everything is in clearly observable beds. What were they thinking?

Sad to say, I have a feeling a lot of the crews who work for the landscaping companies know nothing beyond how to turn the equipment on to use it. I doubt they know a thing about plants. I wish they did, but it's not likely anyone who knew much would be working that kind of job.

Sweetsnuggles said:
I'm sorry your vines were destroyed. I'm trying to grow Morning Glories this year for the first time. I started them from seed and they are about 4-5 inches tall. If you'd like a few of the plants, you are welcome to them. Just let me know and I will dig them up for you. They are purple with red centers.

You are a kind person. Thank you. Yours have flowers already?? Mine are just giant vines! Sooner or later giants are going to start showing up.

Maybe we have the same guy... Does yours, by any chance, have an A and a J in the title?

calliope said:
Tabby knows that beautiful Daylilies than she and Tomcat so gernerously gave me a couple of years ago, were slaughtered by a weed-wacker a few weeks ago. I was so upset. Fortunatelythey are growing back, but I doubt they will bloom this year---funny because my guy blamed the new guy, too.

jed said:
Maybe we have the same guy... Does yours, by any chance, have an A and a J in the title?

Nope---oh no! They must be cloning themselves!

jed said:

Sweetsnuggles said:
I'm sorry your vines were destroyed. I'm trying to grow Morning Glories this year for the first time. I started them from seed and they are about 4-5 inches tall. If you'd like a few of the plants, you are welcome to them. Just let me know and I will dig them up for you. They are purple with red centers.

You are a kind person. Thank you. Yours have flowers already?? Mine are just giant vines! Sooner or later giants are going to start showing up.

They are not blooming yet. They are 4-5 inch vines - just starting to climb up our fence. The picture on the seed packet shows purple flowers with red centers - so I'm hoping that's what the flowers will look like once they get started.

calliope said:
But mbaldwin, you are a homeowner---theses guys are supposed to be pros, that's the difference. In my case, everything is in clearly observable beds. What were they thinking?

Trust me, anyone who has done their own gardening for 20 years knows more about gardening than any landscape company.

I know my garden inside and out -- and I sometimes make the same mistakes folks on this thread have mentioned. It's not surprising that inexperienced landscape crews screw up from time to time.

Anyway, gardening has its joys and pains...that's what makes it interesting. The good news is that everything can and will grow back and you have a story to tell.

My dad once came over to hang out and weed, and who can quarrel with that?, but after a while I realized he was ripping out the ajuga I'd carefully planted. "Those are weeds, it doesn't matter what you think!" was his reply.

And that may be what was going on: Different things are weeds to different people, and the two things that plague my garden are grass and morning glory, so the landscaper's reaction may have been the same as mine would have been. I feel like I spend half my time ripping morning glory out wherever I see it, but it keeps roaring back. So with any luck, your morning glory will come back growing thick and fast.

PeggyC said:
Sad to say, I have a feeling a lot of the crews who work for the landscaping companies know nothing beyond how to turn the equipment on to use it. I doubt they know a thing about plants. I wish they did, but it's not likely anyone who knew much would be working that kind of job.

While that may be true, it's also a gross generalization. I also find "that kind of job" to be a pretty classist statement.

annemarie said:

PeggyC said:
Sad to say, I have a feeling a lot of the crews who work for the landscaping companies know nothing beyond how to turn the equipment on to use it. I doubt they know a thing about plants. I wish they did, but it's not likely anyone who knew much would be working that kind of job.

While that may be true, it's also a gross generalization. I also find "that kind of job" to be a pretty classist statement.

I knew someone was going to say this. But even you started out by saying it is probably true... so where does it get us? Do you really think a lot of landscaping crews are manned by people with degrees in botany? The jobs don't pay enough for people with that kind of training to want them, and I don't think it's "classist" to say so.

I feel like I spend half my time ripping morning glory out wherever I see it, but it keeps roaring back. So with any luck, your morning glory will come back growing thick and fast.

Well, that's encouraging!! Thanks

There's an invasive weed that can look like morning glories except it has white flowers...I think it's called choke weed. You don't want that in your garden

You don't need a degree in botany to know about plants.

annemarie said:

PeggyC said:
Sad to say, I have a feeling a lot of the crews who work for the landscaping companies know nothing beyond how to turn the equipment on to use it. I doubt they know a thing about plants. I wish they did, but it's not likely anyone who knew much would be working that kind of job.

While that may be true, it's also a gross generalization. I also find "that kind of job" to be a pretty classist statement.

I hear what you're saying, Annemarie. I made the same sort of generalization in an earlier posting and will revise. My bad.

It's like anything. There are people who know what they're doing and there are people who don't. And this is hard because, like construction and other labor work, it's a race to the bottom in terms of pricing, which means that businesses that are trying to do it right lose. You want your landscapers to be insured and hire knowledgable, careful, on-the-books employees who earn a living wage and have workman's comp? That money has to come from somewhere.

You know I'm particularly sensitive to this. Please don't paint all companies with the same brush and assume that people who don't sit in an office all day are stupid. That's what's classist.

PeggyC said:
it's not likely anyone who knew much would be working that kind of job.

Highly recommend getting a cordless electric lawnmower. They are quiet and very easy to use. It takes me about 15 minutes to mow my entire yard. In the Summer I don't mow as frequently as the lawn service since I don't water my lawn, we don't get much rain, and keep my lawn mower cutting at the highest setting. I don't fertilize - I just mulch my lawn clippings. I also don't use pesticides. http://www.baltimoresun.com/brandpublishing/columbia-association/bal-ss-columbiaassociation-keep-lawns-beautiful-with-less-work-no-chemicals-dto-20150401-story.html

Every time I read this title I think it says Serial Killer Landscape, like "so, what's new in Serial Killers these days?"

Just me? okay. carry on.

OK, I'm going to back off because I don't want to keep the thread going in the wrong direction. You took my one sentence out of context, neglecting to include that it implies what is in the previous sentence: That many low-paid landscaping employees do not know much ABOUT PLANTS. Not that they don't know much in general.

But, I will walk away from this thread. I did not mean what I said the way you took it, and I apologize if anyone was offended. And yes, that's a "non-apology apology," because I do think intention counts and because it was not my intention at all to imply that landscape employees are stupid.

That's my explanation. I'm outta here.