The Very Bad Morning

[plumtreeblossom]

Someone tore the heads off of every one of my daisies. Not chewed off by an animal. Pulled off and thrown in the yard. This is the 2nd time the exact same thing has happened this year. If someone had picked them because they wanted them, I could understand. But this was just destruction for destruction's sake.

This is the last year I'm doing gardening in the front yard. I was doing it to add some beauty to the neighborhood, but screw it. The yard can go back to being a pit of dirt and dead grass just like it used to be, and I won't care. I'll grow flowers in pots on my back balcony.

Also, my shoes and socks got soaked in the rain on the way to work, and I'm stuck in their disgusting sogginess for the rest of the day at work. And I was late to work because the alarm didn't go off. And I had a half-dozen fires to put out at work once I did get here.

I just want to go home.

Comments

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

If they just pulled the heads off, the daisies will likely come back, and stronger than ever. One of the things I like to try to do when I plant annuals at the beginning of the season is to lop off the first blooms. This causes the plants to branch, thus causing multitudes of more blooms in about 2-3 weeks. So don't despair yet!

But it was very presumptuous for someone else to destroy your flowers. Was it done just to yours, or to all flowers in your neighborhood?

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I didn't know those same same stems will bloom again. I was going to pull them up, but should I just leave them there and wait for new buds?

I didn't notice anyone else's flowers damaged, but I hear complaints about it sometimes in the davis_square community. People's potted flowers get smashed, or the vegetables/fruit they're growing gets stolen. It really sucks when you've worked hard on something.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

"It really sucks when you've worked hard on something."

It really does :(

I'm very sorry, and I've found that the only remedy, at least for me on such bad days, is to simply go home and go back to bed. Only sleep works with me once I'm that upset.

Do you have a fence in the yard? I have heard stories of flower vandalism, but they are usually closer to the square and usually much less extensive (like someone picking flowers for themself).

Did it happen overnight? It sounds like a lot of effort to go through.

At this point, I probably would suggest booby trapping your yard.

[campion7.livejournal.com]

At this point, I probably would suggest booby trapping your yard.

Oh yes, explosives would work well. And with Independence Day in less than a month, you'd be getting into the spirit of things.

Or if you want to be a little more subtle, how about a couple of those huge-ass bear traps that you have to chew off your own limb to get out of. I think that would work well.



Can you tell I'm in a bit of a vindictive mood? ;)

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

If they pulled the top (just flower head) off, yes, remove the stems down via PINCHING (not cutting with knife) to where you would have cut if you were going to use the flower in an arrangement. The remaining plant/leaves will produce at least 2 more buds for each flower head removed. That's the big secret to planning a totally beautiful garden for guests expected in a month or so. If you are having a big party/event, about 3 weeks before the big event denude your flower bed of actual flowers. By the day of the event you will be inundated with a beautiful display.

Another thing to remember with annuals/flowers: use the "deadhead" approach. This means once the flower starts to look sad, lop it off. Go google on the term. The thing is that plants want to reproduce. They flower, the flowers die back, and go to seed. Once it goes to seed, you won't get more flowers. So if you remove the flowers after they are no longer "pretty" and well before they go to seed, the plant says "hey! I want to reproduce" and spends more energy producing more buds/flowers and doesn't waste its energy on producing seeds. And you get a prettier garden, with no brown fading flowers. I've tried it ant it works on Petunias, geraniums, salvia, and marigolds, but essentially any annual that has a biggish flower will work. It doesn't seem to work on begonias or impatiens, mostly because they just flower anyway and the flowers are very small.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Cool! So I just pinch them off with my fingers?

I have a ton of Bachelor Buttons about to bloom. Wonder if it'll work on those, too?

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Yup, should work great on Bachelor Buttons. So don't be afraid to put flowers in the house...all it means is that you'll get more in the garden!

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Pinching is better than cutting, because you are squishing the "cut" end together. This "closes" the cut. A clean knife/scissored cut will allow more juices of the plant to leak out of the remaining plant, weaking the plant ever so little. Of course, some stems are just impossible to pinch off, so if you have to cut give the leftover bit a squeeze with your fingertips to aid the plain in healing after you lop off the stem.

In larger plants, like thick rose branches or trees, if you lop off a branch you should always try to close off the cut edge. Elmer's wood glue (not the white all purpose glue, but the tan "wood glue") is great for larger woody stem/branch cuts, just "paint" the glue on the exposed cut. (dab a drop on your finger and slather it on the exposed edge). This keeps out bugs/worms that eat into exposed cut branches thick enough to drill into - anything the thickness of a skinny pencil can benefit from wood glue to close the cut. Trees also have black paint/tar slathered on cut branches - keep your eyes open for trees that have been recently trimmed, you'll see that the exposed edge often have a sheen (clear varnish) or black paint covering the freshly cut edge.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all this advice! I guess if some jerk hadn't trashed my daisies, I never would have learned all this. :-)

[moonshadow.livejournal.com]

If it works out that way, that's actually kind of awesome. You thought you wrecked my garden, but HA! You just made it BETTER!

[beowabbit]

Oh, love, I’m so sorry! I want to point out that it would take an army to destroy all the flowers, and later in the season you’ll get to see your entire yard collectively thumbing it’s nose stamen at the vandals.

Maybe we should try setting up a webcam to watch the garden. And a remote-controlled sniper-rifle.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

You're right, sweetie. And the sniper-rifle not only shoots the culprit, but rickrolls them, too. :-)

[beowabbit]

Speaking of which, guess what was playing in the IHOP yesterday...

[ron_newman]

About the socks? Walk over to the nearest CVS or equivalent and buy a new pair or two. That's what I often end up doing in that situation.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

They'd just get wet, because the leather of the shoes is soaked through. They're terrible shoes for rain. I'll just have to suffer 4 more hours, then I can go home!

[muffyjo]

While at CVS, buy a pair of sandals. You can switch into them today for drier feet and they'll be useful tomorrow? Otherwise, while at CVS, buy some foot lotion and pumice and treat yourself to a nice pedicure tonight. Your feet will be all nice and soft from a day spent damp! Callouses away!

Sorry someone was such a jerk. I love that they're just gonna come back stronger and in more numbers. Girl + Flower Power = floral celebration all over their sorry tuchuses.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Actually, Ron has a very good point.

Going to school in Ithaca, NY, I learned to always have a spare set of dry socks on hand. I would keep a spare pair of sandals in the office, too. The only downside is that I would be wearing socks with sandals.

This reminds me, I haven't yet done such here at this new job.

[agaran.livejournal.com]

That is one very nice & hot LJ icon you're shootin' with, there.

Friday ambitious musings...

[kissoflife.livejournal.com]

Have you considered using a computer video bud to do surveillance on this? I know that may sound crazy, but I've been pondering this in re: that sad rooster-napping that happened on my street. I can even picture putting a note uo in the garden informing all and sundry that they're being taped, _and_ why. Decent deterrent, maybe?

[thesynergizer.livejournal.com]

it's great that so many people have given you nice suggestions and encouragement, but regardless of what happens to the flowers, i understand that you're just kind of down on humanity and the basic decency of people right now.

and i'm really sorry :-(

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry that some asshole vandalized your flowers! That really, really sucks.

It's easy (for me, at least) to feel bad about the whole human race when something like that happens. But remember that there are lots of good people in the world, and you know what -- you're one of them. And that means that you'll have a better life than your stupid vandals could ever have. Living as themselves IS punishment!

As for your feet, leaving your feet wet all day is a great way to get athlete's foot, which you really don't want! Is there a store nearby? Maybe you could buy some dry socks and leave your shoes off for the rest of the day. Or buy some flip flops or something.

*hug*

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

On the daisies: how rotten. there are few enough beautiful things around. don't let the bastards win. if you want help playing in the dirt come next year, gimme a poke.

On the not-quite horrible, rotten, no good morning: seems there's a pile of that going around. this too shall pass.

[(Anonymous)]

Don't let those bastards win. Keep planting flowers. Plant seeds all over the hood and fight back with beauty.