firstimegardener
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Funny in a sad sort of way

So the last couple of days I have been working at my church cleaning out the flower beds because the only person doing it was our pastor. One end of the main flower bed is dead and he told me he didn't know why. I told him that I'd look up what I could to try to find out (I was going to come ask here!)

He told me - - - well, there were a lot of weeds down here so I sprayed them to give the other plants more room.

Yep, he used round up.

I love him..he's a great guy...but he sure is NO gardener! :)

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microcollie
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Maybe the fact that he's a pastor will keep him out of hell :lol:

dirtfarmer
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microcollie wrote:Maybe the fact that he's a pastor will keep him out of hell :lol:
I used to work for a lawn and landscape company and I had a customer call me and my supervisor, very unhappy. Upon arriving and having to hold my calm as the man screamed at me, he showed us what he was referring to. There were about 5-6, 8"-10" round burn marks in his lawn where his grass had burned up. After convincing my boss that I had nothing to do with it, I grabbed and handful of dead grass, pretended to sniff it (rubbed in between my hands simulating me crushing it for scent) and responded "Yep, smells like weed killer!" The guy hemmed and hawed and finally fessed up to using Roundup on some thistle weed that popped up! Talk about stress!

Sorry for high jacking.....just thought it would be an entertaining story as yours gave me a chuckle! :D

firstimegardener
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dirtfarmer wrote:
microcollie wrote:Maybe the fact that he's a pastor will keep him out of hell :lol:
I used to work for a lawn and landscape company and I had a customer call me and my supervisor, very unhappy. Upon arriving and having to hold my calm as the man screamed at me, he showed us what he was referring to. There were about 5-6, 8"-10" round burn marks in his lawn where his grass had burned up. After convincing my boss that I had nothing to do with it, I grabbed and handful of dead grass, pretended to sniff it (rubbed in between my hands simulating me crushing it for scent) and responded "Yep, smells like weed killer!" The guy hemmed and hawed and finally fessed up to using Roundup on some thistle weed that popped up! Talk about stress!

Sorry for high jacking.....just thought it would be an entertaining story as yours gave me a chuckle! :D
No high jacking I can see :) I find it amazing how people don't realize that if you spray something with weed killer it's going to kill it!

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rainbowgardener
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Yeah, I think last summer we had a couple different people write in here to say "Oh help, I accidentally sprayed my whole yard with weed killer, now what do I do?" Learn your lesson?

cynthia_h
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Once again, marketing marketing marketing displaces people's common sense.

These toxic PLANT KILLER solutions are marketed as WEED KILLERS. "AHA!" says the homeowner, "I have weeds and I don't want them. This stuff'll kill 'em off and then the 'good' plants will have the room they deserve."

Never once listening to the little tiny voice in his/her mind asking whether just maybe, possibly? the "WEED KILLER" might be harmful to anything else???

Roughly over-ridden by the homeowner, whose weed-hating mind says, "Well, if it killed *everything,* they'd call it a PLANT KILLER, now; wouldn't they?"

Hmm...the word for that is "herbicide." But it's in much smaller print than WEED KILLER. BROAD-LEAF WEED KILLER. Oooooh yesssss, let's get rid of those especially!!! :twisted: goes the thought process.

So sorry. Here's my suggestion:

Just dig up all the dead plants--weeds, flowers, whatnot--on that end of the former flower garden. Toss them out. Dig in compost if there is any. If not, ask around the congregation; maybe someone has pet rabbits? Their manure can help to begin rebuilding this poor, attacked soil. Then plant something robust, perhaps fava beans, to enrich the nitrogen content of the soil. Favas like cool/cold weather and look pretty while they're at it; their flowers are white with purple/black centers. Bees like them, too; maybe by the time the favas bloom, the plants will be safe for them. Just stick the beans into the ground with your finger, approx. 6 inches apart. Don't worry about "rows"; this is rehab. Place the next set of beans 6 inches from the first, but off-set from the first ones so that the bean locations are at the corners of triangles, not squares.

Continue every 6 inches until the former flower garden (current Dead Zone) is planted.

Tell me your climate and I'll tell you what to do next.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

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Kisal
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That's a great story, dirtfarmer! Gave me a good laugh! :lol:

firstimegardener
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cynthia_h wrote:Once again, marketing marketing marketing displaces people's common sense.

These toxic PLANT KILLER solutions are marketed as WEED KILLERS. "AHA!" says the homeowner, "I have weeds and I don't want them. This stuff'll kill 'em off and then the 'good' plants will have the room they deserve."

Never once listening to the little tiny voice in his/her mind asking whether just maybe, possibly? the "WEED KILLER" might be harmful to anything else???

Roughly over-ridden by the homeowner, whose weed-hating mind says, "Well, if it killed *everything,* they'd call it a PLANT KILLER, now; wouldn't they?"

Hmm...the word for that is "herbicide." But it's in much smaller print than WEED KILLER. BROAD-LEAF WEED KILLER. Oooooh yesssss, let's get rid of those especially!!! :twisted: goes the thought process.

So sorry. Here's my suggestion:

Just dig up all the dead plants--weeds, flowers, whatnot--on that end of the former flower garden. Toss them out. Dig in compost if there is any. If not, ask around the congregation; maybe someone has pet rabbits? Their manure can help to begin rebuilding this poor, attacked soil. Then plant something robust, perhaps fava beans, to enrich the nitrogen content of the soil. Favas like cool/cold weather and look pretty while they're at it; their flowers are white with purple/black centers. Bees like them, too; maybe by the time the favas bloom, the plants will be safe for them. Just stick the beans into the ground with your finger, approx. 6 inches apart. Don't worry about "rows"; this is rehab. Place the next set of beans 6 inches from the first, but off-set from the first ones so that the bean locations are at the corners of triangles, not squares.

Continue every 6 inches until the former flower garden (current Dead Zone) is planted.

Tell me your climate and I'll tell you what to do next.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
We are in zone 5...started pulling out the dead plants today. Luckily, it's only about a 6 foot section, which seems big, but the whole garden is probably close to 75-85 feet long. I think that they may have a compost pile that I can dig in, so that's a start, and I will talk to them about planting the beans (after all, there's nothing there anyway!)

He really is an awesome guy, and a very good hearted man...I figure we all make mistakes or don't think things through all the way.

GardenGnome
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The person that shares the fence in front of me did that to the black berry bushes and killed some on my side. He asked me to trim them I said they would just grow bigger.
He rented out his house then moved back in. I told him if he wants them gone he has to dig a trench and put something down so the berries don't grow. My son loves eating the black berries and the bush does bug me. So I threw some Mircle grow on my side lol.



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