Gardens By Karen

The first week Karen was here Tues, Wed and Fri. She was here from 11 to 3, and worked like a little beaver. The front was almost completed being weeded, then she started accepting other jobs and putting my jobs on the back burner. Something that I thought would be completed in two weeks from July 21 is still not done. When she was here, she spent hours "transplanting" individual Columbine plants around the edge of a flower bed. In full afternoon sun, I say individual, because the clumps were broken up, and the individual stems were planted. I questioned her, and she said they would be fine. I have been told that the individual Columbine stems are biannual plants, meaning they grow one season. come back she second, said, and die. the self seeding nature of the columbine makes them appear perennial. But they are not sun lovers, and they are all dead!. She moved several peony plants, broke up a few, and moved them to the front of the house. The holes she dug were barely able to contain the roots. Peonies need to have a hole dug larger than the root ball bt two times, need the bottom of the hole half filled with compost, then the roots need to be spread over the compost mound, and the hole filled with a half/half mixture of soil/compost, and be watered in to fill air hole, not stomped in with boots. Guess what? All dead. She transplanted a Clematis that had been growing for 20 years, after severely , (I was going to say trimming, but really not descriptive enough) Butcher all the growing canes to a height of less than 12 inches, then moving it to a spot with no root protection, Guess what? Dead. She "trimmed" the remaining two Clematis to a height of 12 inches. A true "gardener" knows that you cannot trim a growing Clematis that severely and expect it to survive. The books all say not to trim by more than one third during the growing season, and only to remove the dead canes, depending on the type of Clematis is the spring after it is determined which canes are truly dead. One has a few new sprouts, one is completely brown. Are they going to survive???? Without dividing my existing, and unfortunately overgrown hostas, she brought anemic looking "purchased?" Hostas and planted them around the edge of a pine tree, on the 95 degree day. Same planting procedure, Shovel a small hole, stick bare roots in uncultivated, un-amended soil, kick dirt over roots, and stomp in with boots. Her "Friend" who was on my property without prior knowledge, watered them once. I should mention that then left the hose (all 200 feet of it) laying all over the yard. My mowers will not mow with stuff left all over the yard. Did I mention that I have severe health issues, cannot be outside for any length of time, and exertion, even mild, causes shortness of breath, heart palpitations, and pain. Karen Knows this. So, as I stated, with no mulch, and taking 6 weeks to not finish, the front beds were all full of weeds again. But after receiving the $2000 payment in full, she has disappeared. I have sent several e-mails to her, as have wanted a record of what is discussed, and have received no response.

Karen was very accommodating.  She walked through the yard with me and gave me verbal ideas for the gardens I wanted redone.  She met with me later to show me her ideas on paper and give me an estimate.  Upon my approval, she purchased all of the plants (locally!) and planted them.  The gardens look wonderful and everything was neat as a pin when she left.  She even worked in the rain one of the days!  She is friendly, professional and knows her work.  She will be back later this summer to check on the gardens and make sure everything is healthy and growing.