Number one; who wants to spend time wrestling the hose across the front yard and the sidewalk to water plants? Not me. Number two; there is a park at the end of our street. During events (think soccer season) cars park up and down the block and lots of little feet would trample more tender plants to death. Yucca and sedum can stand up to the little monsters. Number three: the city can do whatever it wants to do to this little piece of our property…you maintain it but you are at their mercy.
I never thought that paint would be an issue. The city painted my plants!
And my gravel!
I’m sure the yucca will be fine; it’s only a couple leaves but the sedum. It’s completely caked in yellow paint. Thank god it’s just sedum. Can you imagine how angry I’d be if this was an agave? The mayor would be hearing from me. No, Sam…I am not kidding. You would be hearing from me.
One of our neighbors is having gas piped to her home. The city came out to mark the lines. But I think they got something wrong. At least I hope so. Why are our lines the only ones marked (all the other painted lines are in the street)? We don’t live next to her, or directly across the street from her. Are they digging into our gas lines to install hers? Do you see how close those yellow lines are to the tree? What about the roots? Don’t you dare mess with my tree’s roots!
I can’t even think about that, I love that tree. No instead I’ll think about how long I should wait until I can clean up my yellow rocks, and my yellow leaved yucca and yellow sedum.
oh no. I hope they are not digging. Matti
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you take the time and energy to plan plantings in the hell strip... neighborhoods look so much classier and more lived in that way. Was it really necessary for them to paint the plants?
ReplyDeleteI know! It's just plain disrespectful to the plants. These utilities act like everything is just grass. I understand the paint wears off reasonably quickly, but once you see that the street work or event has happened, I think it's safe to clean it up.
ReplyDeleteWow, i never thought to worry about this problem. I can't even imagine if you invested in a bunch of precious plants only to lose them. You should at least get fair warning from the city before they deface plants so you could move them. You were wise to plan ahead. I hope they don't hurt the tree.
ReplyDeleteHateful ! The City That Works = The City That Paints ?
ReplyDeleteOh, bummer! Still, I think you can plant more out there if you want to - there are tons of tough plants that don't need much or any water once established. I don't ever put anything fancy out there, and I'm not on a soccer route! You'd be surprised what a few common crocosmia, euphorbia, feather grass, etc might do - it actually makes most people (city workers excepted, obviously) be more respectful and treat the area more carefully, especially if you give them a path or two. I know, maybe you will plant your hell strip when I start growing tons of agaves. :)
ReplyDeleteNote to Sam: keep yer dukes up...you do NOT want to mess with Loree!
ReplyDeleteHi Danger....from what I know, it takes about a year for the paint to flake off. They sprayed orange paint on my plants to mark a gas line through our backyard on year. Even the Aspistra were insulted and asked me what kind of people I allow into the garden. Garden Graffiti?!?
ReplyDeleteI feel your paint...er pain.
The upside...you were very wise to plant bullet proof plants in your hellstrip.
David (Tropical Texana)
This positively sucks. Time to march on city hall wielding a pile of spikey plants. Just think...they'll make it through the metal detectors just fine.
ReplyDeleteI'm so tired of utilities spray painting yellow blue and green on curbs, plants, driveways, and hell strips! I think we should paint fuchsia smiley faces on their trucks while they deface our landscapes! To the Bastille!
ReplyDeleteYou would be surprised by the weird and unreasonable placement of gas lines.
ReplyDeleteMy street just underwent an entire retrofitting.
Guess where the main line for the entire neighborhood culminated ?
You guessed it, In my front yard and along the fence in my hell strip.
5 huge holes dug a couple of weeks ago. Lots of damage.
I just received the "File a Claim" paperwork yesterday.
You bet I am going to claim every single plant that they destroyed and I want to go to Flora Grub Nursery for my replacements.
Say , how about that cool Banksia or Leucadendron to replace that crappy rose I disliked anyways ? !
Better check and see what's going on! I felt really sad for some people down the street from my inlaws, they put in a nice raised bed with those $3 bricks that you stack. Someone painted right down about 3 or 4 of them with that God awful spray paint.
ReplyDeleteLoree,
ReplyDeleteSorry! When something similar happened to my hell strip, I called the city to ask what the plan was so that the plants in the way of the work could be saved. Makes one want to move to the country!
Peter
Follow up: my husband (who works for the city of Portland) says it's not "The City" who does this painting, it's contractors and utility employees locating services. He gets a bit miffed when everything is constantly blamed on the city, so I thought I'd set the record straight.
ReplyDeleteSo Sam is off the hook, Loree!
All, thank you for commiserating! And Jane, thank you for the follow-up. Correction noted and appreciated! I came home Friday afternoon to a torn up disaster area in the street. Trucks and equipment and flags and workers. Much to my surprise another neighbors newly laid grass parking strip was torn up but mine wasn't touched. I think the work may be done (or they just took a break for the weekend?)...and my tree may have escaped damage (fingers crossed).
ReplyDeleteMichelle, your story is horrible! I hope your claim receives expedient attention and you get to go on an all expenses paid shopping trip!
Contact your city works manager if your really worried, otherwise I'd just remove it. It's obviously a mistake. Spraying over plants though? Thats one seriously inconsiderate asshat. Aren't they supposed to give you notice of work commencing before they start vandalizing the plants? At least then you can move them (if necessary)
ReplyDeletePS I am surprised that you weren't notified of any work being done on your street. We had the same thing happen a few years ago, it was very disruptive but lucky for me it was on the other side of the street. We did get a few notices about the proposed work (replacing old/cracked sewer pipes) and there was an orange flag stuck in my parking strip veggie patch that made me worry, but then I escaped the backhoes' wrath. I do realize that planting out there is risky, which is why I haven't invested in boatloads of soil amendments or expensive trees/shrubs. I just cleared away the groundcover, planted a few things, and am letting lots of self-sowers do their thing. I know it looks kind of wacky but then if it does have to be dug up, it won't be such a tragedy. Good luck, hope it's all over!
ReplyDeleteI sure hope they don't mess with your tree! Now that would really tick me off! I would be calling everybody and there brother yelling my head off. Good luck honey!
ReplyDeleteAhg I hate it when they make those paint marks! I mean, I understand it's 'necessary' for a good purpose, but then they never remove it or take consideration for people's property like your plants >:(
ReplyDeleteI just hope they inform you or let you ask and definitively answer when they are done so you can fix it!
Oh man...they did the same thing to my garden this spring. We wanted to plant our hell strips this year...so had all the utilities companies come out and mark everything. Sure enough, the gas company did that to our strip...and to the garden. I couldn't believe it when they painted right over newly-emerging plants all the way up to the house. I was like "ummm, I've already planted here, so if I was going to hit a pipe, I would have done it by now." Just like you, I didn't care too much about some plants (the daffodils and tulips die back after flowering anyway...but my perennial Geraniums and Clematis...what!?! There really is nothing quite like coming home to a bright yellow line painted across your garden :-( I'm with you on parking strips...our gas line goes right under ours, so we'll have to build "up" with raised beds to plant ours...but I have nightmare about car doors constantly battering them...sigh.
ReplyDelete