Oh it is ugly and I am ashamed... but here it is, my dark, dirty garden secret, my ugly, uncared for "other" side passage.
So I'll go into defense mode straightaway. When we first moved in to this house, around five years ago now, the conifers that you can see to the right of the photo were lovely, bushy, picture-of-health specimens... just gorgeous trees.
And then along came our neighbour.
Our neighbour has a fondness for one of those backpack plus spray gun rigs. Now I can understand that, to be honest I could go in for a bit of backpack/spray gun power myself. The only problem I have with his penchant for dress ups, is that in the backpack he likes to put poison. And spray it all around his fenceline. Which is his perogative.
Except...
Well you can see for yourself what his love of the backpack did to my trees. It kind of killed them, but bizarrely only to around halfway. Poor things.
So why, I hear you ask me, don't I chop them down?
Well, I don't because of this.
See?
Or rather don't see. This is near the top of one of the half dead conifers. And this is the view out of my sunroom. A room that runs almost the entire length of our house. A room where one entire wall is made up of windows. A room that connects my bedroom to the bathroom.
And a view that blocks out the view of my neighbour's house, and way more importantly, his view of mine. The tops of the trees provide a perfect screen of privacy between my house and one I'd really rather not look at.
But it doesn't change the fact that the trees are not all beautiful, and it's high time I did something about it. So I have started.
If you look in the top photo, you'll notice all that lovely strappy grass on either side of the passage. That's Brazilian Walking Iris, which indeed does walk all over the place. And you can't see them properly, but I have also started to plant different sorts of palms under the conifers. My hope is that as I plant new things and they grow, I'll be able to cut back, and ultimately cut down the poor half dead conifers.
And if he poisons them again I'll topple them over onto his house :D
20 comments:
Now , I have had my share of &^%$# neighbours .....so I would be keeping my reciepts for EVERY SINGLE PLANT that you have bought to plant along that fence...because, what if he sprays again and the palms all die....?
I just live with my weeds....and hand pull them...there is far too much poison in this world without spraying it on back yard weeds....
I was thining you where gunna ask for advise BUT your already doing everything I would have suggested..other than is spray is he a nice neighbour..cause if not her^^^^^^^ husband is Italian and he has mates LOLOL
Oh I was so cranky when it first happened Suzanne. The conifers formed the most beautiful hedge along the entire fenceline between our houses, the sort of thing you see in formal gardens. Just beautiful. There are around 40 of them, and they reach up as high as the roof of my house, I wanted to go out and price them and send him the bill. It just seemed so tragic to do that to those priceless trees.
He's an old man though, so what can you do.
He doesn't poison along that fenceline any more, now he just does the other side and the back fence... where my other lovely neighbours were growing their veggies. Not any more!
Joyful homemaker now that's funny! Let's get him round hey! He isn't a nice neighbour, no, he comes around and tells me how it is all the time, which annoys me to no end. He also asked me if one of my children was "okay in the head" (he saw him throw a massive hysterical tantrum) which didn't endear him to me. Luckily I don't see him very often as he doesn't live there, he just maintains it as a rental.
Oh far out........I would have replied, yes his is.....but are you?......
Anyway, the positive thing is, cos there is always a positive...that yes, I am married to an Italian man, and you are doing all that fabulous planting in the under story which will look great...x
Oh that really peeves me off! You are so good not to have gone over and emptied his backpack into his car! or manure! He sounds really really horrible.
Could you wrap jasmine or potato flower or something else fast growing and flowery and shade tolerant around the trunks in the meanwhile?
Huge hugs for you and your poor trees!!
Sometimes, and I will never admit this, my mind goes a little crazy with the retribution plans. I have a side of the house also a bit on the wild side. More, I have a neighbour who also likes poison sprays and he has killed a number of plants on my property. I get a little crazy in my mind and have thoughts of filling water balloons with Roundup(TM) and tossing them commando style over the back fence. Or filling a super soaker water gun with the same and writing "killer" on his lawn with a skull and crossbones underneath!
Then I breathe in and out and seeth quietly and hope that my violent thoughts will pass.
Mrs Bok that's a brilliant idea - I had never thought of a pretty vine to cover up the dead branches... and I have potato plant here - it's covering the chook pen! All over it!
I didn't mean to be too harsh on my neighbour, he's old and set in his ways, that's all. I'm sure with the poison he really don't know any better. Not like our local council who control the weeds around the waterways by spraying them...
Oh Tanya, while I'm sorry this happens to you too, I am so glad I am not alone in it! And while I was very upset and angry at the time, I am very much accepting of it now and ready to fix up an unsightly spot. And also kind of excited about perhaps creating a side passage to be proud of.
I tell you what though, please, if you ever do the commando round up thing, take photos :D
Oh dear, how disappointing. Mrs Bok's vine idea sounds good. Can you have a chat with him about the poison in case he starts again? He may not even realize the damage he's done to your trees. Especially if he's old.
I saw a great bit of environmental fight back once. A private school near where I used to live flattened a large piece of native bush and put in a sporting complex with a big oval on which they planted grass seed. Once the grass was up and looking lush someone snuck on and wrote .... *[Name of School] f**ks the environment" in huge block letters right across the oval. The main road passes by above the oval and the sign was visible to everyone who drove past. It took weeks for them to erase it with new lawn seed. LOL.
My suggestion is to remove all those dead branches up the trunks of your trees...I am sure it will look much better...then continue to under plant....and use vines.
I hope your neighbour doesn't read your blog! No, actually, I hope he DOES.
My ideal property is one that is set in the middle of nowhere, with at least 100 metres from my house to the nearest boundary. I remember the feeling of joy when I moved from a semi-detached house to my first fully detached one -- bliss!
Good Lord, I read 'Brazilian Walking Iris' as 'Brazilan Waxing Iris' and had this bizarre idea that that is essentially what's happened to your poor trees! Then I read it again and realised my error; too many late nights! (but appropriate slip?)
I would have been fuming if anyone had done that to my trees.
Hi Ali.........lol...I think you may need to spray your neighbour! I certainly don't blame you for keeping the trees so that he can't poke his nose into your business so to speak.
Our neighbour over the back fence uses round-up around his borders and it hasn't effected the palms, so they probably would survive. It has killed other plants though and the weeds seem worse along that fenceline than elsewhere.
Hi Ali
How sad for you, and yes neighbours like that exist in many places sadly (one of the reasons we moved to the country if the truth be known). I think eventually the once lovely conifers will have to go as I am not sure they will recove down low. Perhaps you could plant some clumping bamboo there instead. It grows tall and pretty quickly compared to other plants and I love the russling sound it makes. Plus you will have a never ending supply for garden projects. Check out this link for ideas http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s3190355.htm
What a bummer! Like many of you I also know a keen poisoner... Joel! I have lost heaps of young plants that got lost in the weeds and then sprayed over. Although if you combine my losses, they wouldnt be as bad as your poor conifers!
You're to be commended at how you've handled that situation Ali.
Good wishes for speedy growth to your palms.
With havin so much content do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or
copyright infringement? My website has a lot of exclusive content I've either created myself or outsourced but it looks like a lot of it is popping it up all over the web without my authorization. Do you know any methods to help reduce content from being stolen? I'd
really appreciate it.
Also visit my webpage ... diet Plans That work
If you want to take a good deal from this piece of writing
then you have to apply these strategies to your
won blog.
Look at my web blog - Testoril Review
Post a Comment
comment here!