The Hague prosecutes heinous acts like genocide and ethnic cleansing. Though the plant mutilations and acts of aesthetic idiocy I've uploaded to my Flickr site don't rise to that level, they at least deserve to be ridiculed.
Though beauty is in the eye of the beholder and some of you might look at the images and say "What's so bad about that?" I resort to my mom's dictum: "You have your opinion and I'll have the right one."
Thanks mom.
Brace yourself, ask the children to leave the room and click here.
6 comments:
They really are crimes against humity aren't they!
This is exactly the kind of thing I've been blathering away about all year. I'll link to your photo set in my next round-up post on the subject if I may?
Plants above could be limbed into a small tree needing less maintenance + creating shade. (Don't really know this, my eyes can't tell what the plants are!)
Wonder about long term costs of stupid plant choices? Hmm, a green bush, as in your picture is about $35.
Keeping it for decades of pruning costs what? $300?
My Post Office with its lawn & weekly mowing, crape myrtle trees & yearly whacking, and cleyera/gardenia/roses pruned several times each year. UGH.
Do the math on my Post Office for yearly landscape maintenance. Do the math at a national scale for yearly landscape maintenance. Oh no............
Solution for my PO? Groundcover needing no mowing, shrubs & trees planted to scale needing no pruning.
It's a start.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
The damage to these plants is terrible - but I'm more concerned about the long term effects on your psyche. To witness and photograph these despicable acts has to do some serious damage to even the most hardened crime photographer.
Your flickr documention of these atrocities is admirable.
Plant janitor. I like it. We've been calling them mow and blow because that's all they seem able to do, but I forgot about the butchering with hedge clippers. Thank you for documenting these horrible atrocities.
VP: sorry I'm slow getting back, but by all means, link away. Flattered!
Tara: good point. People are always fixated on the "ribbon cutting" mentality - how does it look right after planting - and completely lose sight of the "life cost" of labor, fuel, dump fees, noise pollution, air pollution, etc. Wrong plant / wrong place has multiple impacts other than triggering my gag reflex.
Ross: Don't worry about my psyche - it was mashed and shredded years ago. I'm hanging on by a thread, though and looking forward to a nice rest in that cool jacket they promised me - the one that zips up the back and makes it look like you're hugging yourself.
Brad: I think it's a disservice to real gardeners to use that term. Mow and blow is good but not demeaning enough. Not that there's anything wrong with being a real janitor - it's just that plants require a bit of science and art too.
Bravo, it's about time that someone put a face on these poor victims. Seattle has a wonderful program called "Plant Amnesty". Google them, they work for the same cause.
Cindee
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