When Garden Help Goes Wrong

[Nyboy]

Do you have anyone help you in the garden ? Do you want any help in the garden? I have a flower garden at work, which one of my guys enjoys working in. But we see things very different. I have a cement fountain at work, it grew a great patina of green moss. One day I walk by and it was scrubbed clean I did not get mad he had no clue what patina is to him it looked dirty. A long time later the moss slowly grew back. Yesterday a different guy was working I told him clean up the front. He bleach and scrubbed fountain

 

[lcertuche]

Sorry about your patina. I personally don't care for a patina but that's just me. I don't think I would be wanting to mess with someone else's garden except maybe pull a weed or two or deadhead a bloom.

 

[Nyboy]

I like things to look like they been in the garden for ever

 

[lcertuche]

I would probably have a patina because I'm too lazy to scrub clean a bird bath. I will scrub my chickens water bowls if they look like they are getting fuzzy but that's about it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

When my dog or chicken water bowls start to turn green I wash them with a bleach solution. I don't really think that algae would hurt them but it just doesn't feel right to leave them green. I dump that water every day or two anyway to keep mosquitoes from breeding in it. That probably keeps the water fresh enough to be healthy.

I pretty much garden alone. I don't help anyone else and don't have anyone help me. I wish the grandkids were closer so I could change that but life is what it is. I don't pull weeds or do anything in anyone else's garden or landscaped beds. I know what I want in mine, I don't know what they want in theirs or how they want it.

A few decades back when I was visiting home, Dad wanted me to weed his asparagus bed, so I did. At that point in his life he was not able to do a lot. He also grew sunflowers in that general area. What I did not know was that he was OK with sunflowers actually growing in the asparagus bed, that's just something I would not do. You guessed it, he did not want me cleaning the sunflower sprouts out of the asparagus.

 

[seedcorn]

@Ridgerunner I'm with you. Although the wife tries to help (once in a while) but just pulls tops of weeds. Making them 10X harder to kill....... Prefer her to stay OUT. I get it honest as Mom and Dad would not allow anyone in their gardens either. When people were given permission to pick excess, they usually destroyed more than they picked. So when we had extra, we picked and gave it to them.

@Nyboy Funny but you have good help that wanted the birds to bathe in clean water. For algae to grow, waste (nitrogen) has to be available. Color me with brush that thinks patina looks unkept.

 

[Beekissed]

I feel your pain!!! I love the patina of things as well and it doesn't look dirty or scruffy to me,but artistically old....sort of like old people.

My Mom came to stay with me some years back and had offered to help me paint some things around the house....walls, trim and such. One day I came home to find she had painted this antique trunk I'd had for years, with its old paint jobs intact and showing through, it was a very quaint piece of furniture I was using as an end table.

Ruined it. I sold it in a yardsale for a pittance after that, as it was no longer pleasing to my eye, fresh coat of paint and all.

She thought she was correcting an eyesore, said it looked scruffy and dirty the way it was. She comes from an era of "everything must look freshly painted and cleaned" or it's not good to look upon....back when many great antiques were ruined by a coat of paint, which then aged on that piece of furniture and later became "patina".

 

[seedcorn]

Ok, I know I'm in HUGE minority but I don't get it. If it is old, why does a fresh coat of paint ruin the age or usefulness or beauty of an object? Or if it is maintained, why does it lessen its value? So why not buy new, let it sit outside in weather and get the same old, crusty, neglected look? As you can tell, I'm a MONGO.

 

[ducks4you]

I hired help to put up my hay and general grunt work. They helped ME and I supervised. That's the only way you can get your money's worth. I won't let anybody clean my horse's stalls unsupervised bc I conserve bedding, which is VERY expensive, and I conserve good bedding while the help would strip off and throw away usable bedding $.
Nope to the UNSUPERVISED gardening help!

 

[catjac1975]

Do you have anyone help you in the garden ? Do you want any help in the garden? I have a flower garden at work, which one of my guys enjoys working in. But we see things very different. I have a cement fountain at work, it grew a great patina of green moss. One day I walk by and it was scrubbed clean I did not get mad he had no clue what patina is to him it looked dirty. A long time later the moss slowly grew back. Yesterday a different guy was working I told him clean up the front. He bleach and scrubbed fountain

Sorry but. hahahahaha. I hire weeders for my daylily beds. I have had a few great ones but most work a few times and don't come back. Took a chance on a 14 year old girl because of the pleas of her mother last season. She was really good. She got very busy when school started in the fall.