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A bit of Boston ivy adds a bit of texture and color to the stone wall.

My rant for this week is that I was deprived of my rant. I went to a nearby landscape that had been trashed by the so-called ‘gardeners’ for many years, only to find some unexpected and major improvements. I do not know what happened. Although it will take some time for the landscape to recover from the prior damage, it is already starting to function as intended.

It is obvious that the landscape was very well designed. Although I know very little about design, I know what is horticulturally correct. The designer selected species that are very appropriate for every application, even though none were particularly trendy at the time. Those who were hired to maintain the landscape only interfered with its intended development.

I noticed several improvements, but got pictures of only two features that bothered me the most prior to this season.

Obviously, the landscape designer intended the trailing rosemary in the picture above to cascade over the stone retaining wall, not so much to obscure the appealing stonework, but to break up its expansiveness. Obviously, the Boston ivy was intended to climb up from below to do a bit more of the same, and provide a bit of color in autumn, without overwhelming the rosemary.

Until recently, the so-called ‘gardeners’ had shorn the Boston ivy into useless little globs at the base of the wall. If it crept onto the wall, they were sure to remove it just as it was starting to exhibit color for autumn. The rosemary was never allowed to hang over the edge, and typically got shorn just as it was beginning a bloom phase.

Now, the Boston ivy is allowed to climb the wall somewhat. I suspect that it will be partly removed through the year, just so that it can provide a bit of color by autumn, but without getting too overgrown. Also, the formerly shorn edge of the rosemary is beginning to take on a natural form, and will likely start to cascade through summer, hopefully with occasional thinning.

What bothered me even more than the glaringly bare wall was how this pair of flowering crabapples in the picture below got hacked back annually just as the flower buds were beginning to show the slightest bit of color. Seriously! Every little twig that could have bloomed was removed. The so-called ‘gardeners’ were weirdly punctual about this.

Well, the trees got pruned a bit earlier last winter. What I did not bother to notice earlier was that much of the unsightly stems that had been disfigured by what the so-called ‘gardeners’ did to them were pruned back to healthier growth, while much of the blooming stems were left intact to bloom now! All the damage can not be repaired in one season, but this a great start.

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Someone is putting serious effort into renovating these flowering crabbaple trees.

 

18 thoughts on “Horridculture – Major Improvement”

    1. I hope they keep it up. It is bad enough when so-called ‘gardeners’ ruin any random landscape they charge a lot of money to ‘maintain’, but it is even worse when they ruin such a well designed landscape. This one looked reasonably good, even while not maintained properly, but would look even better allowed to perform as intended.

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  3. What an improvement! I hope the gardeners got your message. I have a policy of posting photos on FB when our local municipal gardeners do a particularly good job- this kind of encouragement usually receives good community support.

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  5. Too bad that it took them awhile to figure it out, but at least it was not beyond repair. Nature has a way of fixing our mistakes. Thanks for the article, I will do some more reading before I prune.

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      2. Yes it is unfortunate that they may have lost their account, but it is possible that they are the same crew, but with someone who knows a bit about horticulture. I never see them, so I do not know.

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      5. I tended 6 rose bushes for 5 years that the previous homeowners planted. They were beautiful. Sold the house and the new people yanked them out of the ground before the ink was dry on the closing documents.

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  6. Reblogged this on Tony Tomeo and commented:

    After deprivation of my rant three years ago, I notice that this particular landscape has reverted to its former dysfunction, although not quite as badly as several years ago.

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