I told the people who cut my lawn that they could only cut the grass--no trimmer allowed.

I can weedwack in about ten mintues. It takes a lot longer to undo the damage that they can wreck in a few minutes.

I understand this rant! I have had to put rocks and stakes in front of some of my favorite plants so that the overzealous lawn guy doesn't weed whack them anymore. 5 years ago he sliced through our A/C unit with the weed whacker!
I'm sorry for your loss, amused by the story and glad you solved the mystery!

kate

OMG! Do we have the same yard care business? I have had the same problem with my yard people. Not the owner, but the incompetants that he hires. They cannot tell the difference between a flower bed and the lawn. I have had them weed eat entire flower beds full of flowers, remove bark from my crape myrtle trunks when there is a circle of mulch around them 3 ft wide. They have knocked over birdbaths, statues and thrown hoses on top of my roses.
I have put barriers around plants that I am trying to get started in the yard and they will go inside of them and cut everything down. Plants spilling over in beds are weed wacked to pieces. Limbs of trees are knocked off, and on and on. I feel your pain. It is so disheartening to go out and see all your hard work gone. I have threatened so many times to fire these people, they say they will do better, then next time they come it's another new person and we start all over again. Aghhhhhhhh!

Boy, it makes me glad MY yard care guy is...Mark! (And even HE can't be trusted all the time!) I'm so sorry you guys have to deal with that stuff. It's bad enough trying to cope with what Mother Nature hands out. I'd go ballistic if someone I was PAYING good money to did something like that to my plants.

Here's hoping it doesn't happen again, bihai. Good luck!

Marcia

So sorry for your pain. I've had times like yours when we lived in an HOA and the landscape crew did their worst. There was constant personnel turnover so nothing ever improved on their part.
Improper (illegal) pesticide application, horrendous hacking of plants. Oh I don't miss it at all.
Denise

I have had that same experience quite a few times which is why no one touches my yard now but me.

I think the only 'experience' they need to have is 'have you butchered plants before?...yes?...you're hired!'

Lawn "Care" Service is a misnomer...they only know how to raze and slaughter. They can't tell a weed from an ornamental - nor do they care.

So sorry to hear your plight. I'm glad you can come here to vent people who are sympathetic.

I would ask for reimbursement for replacement plants. You may not get it, but it may cause them to be more careful next time.

I'm trying to educate my "landscaper." He's a very young man with a new business (he grew up in the neighborhood). However, I thought my lemon grass was safe because it was between the driveway and the rain barrel. Nope, he got that riding mower within 2" of the rain barrel and chopped it all down. Yes, it's growing back but it will be a while before it has those lovely curly brown leaves surrounding the tall green ones again. Argh!! At least he's very contrite whenever he does something like that and is willing to learn. I'm about to promote him from "landscaper" (an idiot with a mower) to "yardman" (an honest hardworking person).

bihai, OF COURSE WITHHOLD MONEY FROM THIS BUFFOON. How else will he attempt to learn his own trade?

Landscaping is the only business I know nationwide where boneheads and their friends feel they know everything since they have a lawnmower and can see what other bad landscapers do and just mimic it and say "that's what should be done".

Lemmings and idiots. Mechanics have recognized the sleeze and mistrust of them in society, some try to break the mold.

Hardworking and you give them a break? C'mon, a washing machine or dryer works hard too but it does what it is supposed to do (and perfectly I might add) and nothing else.

Any other profession and incompetence gets you a broken contract, fine, jailtime, a firing or a court case. Imagine if the medical field worked this way.

after re-reading and seeing the prick owner totally diminished your concern (you caught them red-handed) and made it sound you should have no reason to be angry with your property damage, you NEED TO CAN this company. And tell the neighbors.

Capitalism, baby. You do a bad job or have crappy customer service, the beauty is that you help the best companies survive and the crap ones suffocate.

Gee, lady they're grow back after all. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. "Yeah, mister, you'll find another client, after all. You're fired."

Bihai
If you find a solution to this problem please share. I allow my lawn service to only do the front yard though ever so often they prune the "Overgrown " areas. I have a double problem that only one of the crew speaks English and my Spanish sucks.lol This is the only one that shows up like clockwork and the fee is 10 bucks under others.
Rather surprised at the comments would you expect Botanists doing lawn maintenence?? I suspect the only reason they're in the business is because it's the only job available??
i did have one in the past who was perfect but guess what he got a higher paying job .Wonder why?? gary

I agree with the above statement. If the owner was so flippant about your loss FIRE THEM and make it clear to whoever you hire why you fired the previous service.

I would have done the same thing you did, blown my top and used language that isn't very lady like. I do the mowing and weed-wacking, trimming, weeding etc. DH handles the unreachable stuff. I would fire those people too as there are more companies around. Maybe these two will learn their lesson, maybe!

Sorry you've had to go through this awful experience.

FlowerLady

Wow I am so glad to hear from all of you. I am, of course, very sorry to hear that you have had the same experience, but at the same time, perversely glad I am not the only one, LOL.

My problem is that I live on 5 acres of wooded land. Only the areas right around the house are actually cultivated. There are other areas that need attention to keep the blackberry vines and wild grapevines down, and all the tree seedlings that pop out from the oaks, pines, sycamores and hickories from becoming trees. They also trim all the hedges, of which there are MANY because the previous owner planted them over 20 years ago.

I can't do it all myself...I tried and everything got way out of hand.

But its bad enough that I have to actually put up with stuff like wild hogs rooting up entire beds, armadillos rooting everywhere, squirrels shredding the tops of mature bananas, etc without the humans helping them out!

My husband works 12 hours day 5 days a week and usually halfday on Sat so he's no help in the yard. He asked me if I had fired them after I told him what had happened, and I said no, but I think that they wish I had after I read them the riot act!

I still haven't decided what to do. I replanted the bed with some extras I had in the greenhouse and in other areas of the yard, but it looks pretty pitiful. At least they know not to touch it ever again. After the tongue lashing I gave them yesterday, they might fire ME as a client!

I thought I had made it clear to these guys what was whackable and what wasn;t. They have been working here for almost 2 years.

so sorry Bihai. I would be in tears if my ele ears would be chopped down.
I had to let our lawn service go after they weed wacked one of my blue tango broms and 2 earth stars. Look at 'Angie's list' or 'Servicemagic' for someone else.

The lawn service hired by my HOA weedeated my Agastche plants down to the ground. How I managed not to wrap aforementioned weedeater around one of their necks is beyond my scope of understanding.
I've taken the route of posting laminated signs in my gardens, Fedex office does a good job of laminating btw, that reads verbatim:

"Keep your ass out or you're fired"

Gets to the point succinnctly.

Sounds like you really have a dilemma, bihai. You need help, but how to get the right KIND of help isn't easy. Can you make markers of some kind to stick in beds you want them to stay completely away from? Maybe tie orange tape to a stick and poke it in the ground the day before they come over? Or some kind of signal that they can't claim to have missed?

Then you can tell them plainly that the next time they cut down a plant, you will be insisting on replacement value. Free service or whatever it takes until the cost is made up. If it hits them in the pocketbook, perhaps they will listen and learn.

You could just replace them with another service, but unless you have serious recommendations from happy customers, how do you know you are getting anyone any better?

I sure hope you can find a way to get the help you need without losing precious plants. I would want to kick some serious backsides, myself, and would definitely want reimbursement of some sort. That doesn't give you your plants back, but at least it would make them think twice about running over everything. If not for this time, at least warn them that the NEXT time it happens, you will expect it.

Good luck!

Marcia

I don't have a lawn service. I'm too cheap/too poor and I have the time and my landscape load is managable.

A few years ago (different house) my painters covered my newly plantd gaillardia seedings with clear plastic so they wouldn't get paint on them! Most of them fried very quickly. They were "only" gaillardias for pete's sake! I went bullistic! Those poor painters where scared of me after that! They were only trying to help...
I don't know what I would have done in your situation Bihai with rare collectables.

I have a landscape maintenance business. I specialize in rose care. If a client has a problem (very rare) then I try to make it right...I offer to make it right. "What would you like me to do to make this right?" ( I work alone so no employee problems.) I care about my clients and most (all?) of my business is word of mouth. I can't afford to piss people off but mostly I try to do the right thing. What ever happened to doing the right thing?

Someone mentioned Angie's list. As a member you can get reports on other maintenance people AND give a review of your situation if you are so inclined.

The funny thing is...we don't even HAVE a lawn (to speak of). We have 3 small 'grassy areas'. The bulk of their work is trimming hedges and mowing down tree seedlings.

I think they are pretty clear now on where they are never, ever under ANY circumstances supposed to even set foot. When I said "I never want you within a 100 ft radius of my greenhouse or in ANY PLACE that even REMOTELY resembles a flowerbed" I think I got the message over. I am going to think of how to bring up the fact that I want payment for the plants. I will have to research the current online cost of all those types of aroids, the clerodendron, and OH YEAH they even axed my COONTIE PALMS.

No one does it like I want so I won't have anyone unless I can stand over them. So far that is twelve year old bo I had a lawn guy at my last house who raked ALL the mulch out of my beds and piled it at the road!

FIRE THEM! I am glad I mow my own lawn. I can't believe they didn't even care or offer to pay for all of the plants. I would demand compensation!

Gary, you're right about the language barrier. I almost laughed out loud one time watching my neighbor who knew about two words of Spanish trying to communicate with his gardener via sign language. They publish books like Spanish for Health Care Professionals and Spanish for Law Enforcement. Where's our Spanish for Landscapers?

Perspective. You are still alive. You have food on the table and a roof over your head. You hopefully have your health. You live in a free country. There are so many things to be thankful for and things could be so much worse.

Bihai ..I would have fired the guy...as a matter of fact I did....our old lawn guy was constantly cutting down stuff I had planted....Even after I told him not too....One day after they cut down a plumeria I had enough and fired them on the spot. How hard is it to cut grass? I warned my new guy to stay out of my flower beds....so far he has been pretty good about it. The problem I have with him is getting him to come. Hes supposed to come once every two weeks...I have to call him to get to come over....I told him this time...that I am tired of looking at my lawn totally overgrown and my dog does not like the high grass either...I warned him if he does not start coming more regularly I will fire him too. That seemed to have worked for now :-) Its funny though that he was complaining that he had to fire his helpers because of the economy...I told him all he had to do was actually show up and he would get paid more :-)

I also think you should find another lawn service. My reason for saying that is the fact the the owner had no idea why you were so upset. I would have fired them on the spot.

bihai, I would ask for compensation and if he refuses, get another yard service and put them on notice.

marcia, "Boy, it makes me glad MY yard care guy is...Mark! (And even HE can't be trusted all the time!) " Yea I know you gals have a way of persuasion ;>) bernie

Sounds like you need a laugh today. Hope the below verse gives you a smile (not sure where you are from so I used Venice-its rhymes well):

There once was a gardener from Venice;
Who had a yard man named Dennis;
He thwacked and he wacked;
He literally attacked;
This yard man was really a menace.

Well our gardener decided to get even,
He came up with a plan to believe in,
It was a solution,
To this gardening pollution,
The only thing waiting was when.

Our gardener planted a real deal,
Something to make the yard man squeal,
It looked like an ordinary shrub,
Just small like a peg or a stub,
This was no fake, this one was real,
And made out of iron and steel.

Well, our new plant did the yard man see,
He gave out a shriek full of glee,
He got out his whacker,
Became the attacker,
And was off on his killing spree.

But when he tried to whack our bush,
Our plant gave back a mighty push,
His whacker bounced off,
Gave the yard man such a boff,
It knocked him right on his tush.

I loved it :)

Hi
I was hoping that you had some way to communicate BEFORE you hired a service. Seems that misunderstandings are the norm not the exception. Sure been true in my case. I had one who was perfect but only did lawns because he was unemployed Wouldn't you know he'd find a job ?? Damned economy lol My lawn is too small to get bids and the present co does it because they do a half dozen neighbors.
Since the lead man is the only one who speaks english and is usually not there doing the actual work double problem. I just let them do the front lawn edging and cleanup. Never go into the backyard and I put whacker guards on the trees. When I tried to communicate not mowing so close to the shrubs the next time they left a 6
foot edge of grass lol I'm in need of help with trimming and shudder what that will bring lol
Funny story , I hired a co to remove a very overgrown travelers palm including digging out the roots and filling the hole. They ran over a couple of beds getting the bobcat to the area kind of expected as it was so tight.
I watched over them like a hawk the entire time and though they did damage the shadehouse a bit .good job The house was still standing and no body was injured.
When he came to collect the money he informed me that the orange tree had serious disease problems . Went out to look and the "disease " was 40 orchids attached to the limbs lol had a hard time convincing him that it was okay lol Thank the lord he didn't "prune" it lol.
Now for advice on a REAL problem .How do you communicate with Contractors lol. Is there one that actually works on time,on budget and does anything remotely like you want?? If so how do you pick him out of the crowd?? lol gary