Remember these cleared out and clean garden beds I spent last Sunday working on?
3 days later I came home to this:
The pictures are blurry but you get the idea that the beds are disheveled and torn apart. That's thanks to our neighbor's lawn service. Remember last year when they blew all of our neighbor's leaves into our yard? Andy had politely talked to them about the problem and we thought it would no longer be an issue. We were mistaken.
This year they blew leaves all over our yard, into my garden beds and blew the straw all over the place. Needless to say I was extremely frustrated. They didn't attempt to clean the leaves out and left the garden as is, they didn't even try to recover the beds with the straw. Luckily they were still at my neighbor's when I got home and I said something to them. They tried to act like they didn't know they did it but promised to come clean it up the next day.
Well they didn't show up, so Andy called and they finally came Friday. When I went out on Saturday to check out their work I realized they cleaned up the leaves but at least a quarter or more of the straw was gone and they tromped all through the beds. We don't walk through the beds, the point of raised beds is to NOT walk through them for loose soil. It was obvious they has walked over the beds and compacted the soil. I was so mad I could have cried, actually I did.
I ended up having to rake back all the straw, take a garden fork to loosen the soil, rake and even out the soil, and recover with straw. I had to dig up all the garlic I planted and replant it. I spent an hour and a half fixing their mess.
I'd have been more than frustrated, I'd have been furious! You should have called them back and made them come out and do it all over again, and do it right. I know it's not easy sometimes, and as much as you'd like to, it's hard to fuss at neighbors. I constantly complain about the huge dead limb hanging over my garden from the neighbor's tree. I honestly fear it will someday drop on me and kill me dead, LOL! I'm always picking up dead branches from that tree, and it is a miracle I haven't been clobbered by one. But I don't fuss at her, I just fume to myself.
ReplyDeleteI told the neighbor about the issues we have been having with her lawn service, and she felt bad about it. She has had her own issues with them and says she won't be using them again. I called the lawn service and told them how upset I was. He asked what he could do to fix the problem and offered to come pick every leaf out but I told him that wasn't the issue. The issue was that he had tromped all through the beds after I have worked so hard to keep the soil loose. I told him I didn't want him back in my garden and that he cost me my time. He still offered to buy me a bale of straw which I accepted, but so far it hasn't shown up so I'm not going to hold my breath.
DeleteI'd give him five days, then call and remind him he owes you a bale of straw. Don't let him get away with it!
DeleteThat sucks. People are so disrespectful these days. My mom's neighbor has a SIL (30 years younger than my mom) that blows their leaves into her yard instead of picking them up like everyone else on the street.
ReplyDelete