Humans can be the worst pests

[duajones]

In another thread I mentioned that I had a few plants that were wilting or just not looking very good. When I got home this afternoon I noticed that the neighbor behind me whose back yard is nothing but weeds, had obviously sprayed something on the yard because all of the weeds were wilting and yellowing. That is when it dawned on me that he was the culprit concerning these 3 plants. Only 3 plants and because of my layout I am extremely lucky that it didnt seem to affect all of my plants. After going to his house 2 times and knocking on the door, I was finally able to catch him home a short while ago. Turns out that his lawn service sprayed some kind of weed and feed sometime in the past week or so. And of course it has been windy. I was beside myself at the time and went off on him maybe a little more than I should have but I was extremely upset. At one point he offered to pay for my plants and I explained to him that money couldnt replace what I might possibly lose, pointing out that I started these plants inside my house the first of the year. I cannot put a monetary figure on my possible loss. Anyway, the three plants are Indian Stripe, Black and Brown Boar and Cherokee Purple. I chose this particular spot for these three based on last years experience with plants grown in the same spot that did very well. No disease problems and for whatever reason no whitefly problem like I experienced in my main bed last year. The BBB is a goner but the CP and the IS look like they might make it through, will have to wait and see.

I already have enough pests and disease problems to have to deal with and try to prevent. It just ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫es me off that I have to deal with a stupid human that has no regard for his neighbors. I have been here for 7 years and I have seen this guy in his back yard maybe 3 or 4 times. He doesnt have a blade of grass in his back yard. I am livid still and am glad that he was receptive to our conversation as it did make me feel a little better about our future as neighbors. Being completely honest, I felt like punching the guy in the nose but of course would never do so. I would rather someone punch me in the mouth than do something so ignorantly blatant. I have run off at the mouth more than I should about this but I am extremely upset. Sorry for the vent but I needed to get it off my chest. I already put up temporary fencing to keep large dogs and cats out of my garden, use netting at times to keep the birds from pecking ripe fruit. I use Daconil regularly to prevent blight and other problems. I work hard to have success and prevent critters of all kinds from taking that away from me. The last thing I need are humans causing me problems. Can you believe it?

[Zana]

Duane

Sorry to hear the troubles you've had with your neighbour. I've experienced similar in the past and know how heart rending it can be. Vent all you want....especially if that is what it takes so that you don't go pop him one in the kisser.

Hope your CP and IS pull through. What about giving the BBB a total soak in a light soap solution and potting it up temporarily so that it has fresh soil too?

Zana

[rnewste]

Duane,

I would suggest that 99% of all homeowners have no concept of fertilizer drift due to wind conditions. For example, two years ago I lost half of my seedlings when I had the coldframe cover off one of my two Incutainers, and someone fertilized their back yard with Weed and Feed. Do you know who that dumb Bozo was?? ME!!!

The fact that you have a neighbor who expressed his concern over what happened and even offered to replace your plants is a good sign. While the damage may be done for this year, I would try to "coordinate" with him next year as to when he decides to fertilize, and then plant out after he has had the service done.

Perhaps you could get some live replacement plants from Darrel at Selected Plants.

Raybo

[duajones]

Zana,

Thanks and I appreciate your suggestion on pulling the BBB and trying to revive it. I may give that a try. The CP and IS seem to be rebounding and it appears that the plants are developing a new leader so to speak. The leader on both plants look to be dying, however the rest of the plants have perked up and side leaves or shoots are growing upwards. Something I have never seen before. I will let those plants go and see what happens. These three plants got the spot they are in because they were the best looking plants of everything I have. CP and IS are seconds where as BBB was the only one I had left because I gave the others away to friends. I should have kept more backups but felt confident enough to let them go. I still cant believe I am even having this problem as it is something I never expected. Live and Learn I guess but I am really pi ssed off about this. One of those things that only happen to others until it happens to you.

[duajones]

Raybo,

Thanks for your reply and I agree about the percentage of people that dont have a concept of what is going on. My neighbor was extremely apologetic and I think we will be better neighbors because of it. At the end of our conversation he mentioned that he noticed my tomato plants but never gave a thought to what his lawn service might do. I believe him and have calmed down quite a bit in the past hour. I told him that he was wasting money on the feed part completely because he doesnt have a blade of any type of grass in his yard. I also pointed out that unless he planned on bringing in sod or planting grass seed that he has been wasting his money on watering like he did last year during the drought. Again, he doesnt have one blade of grass and I am not kidding when I say that, it is all weeds.

[David Marek]

Yes, your neighbor could choose a different approach, but I wouldn't blame him for trying to "be like everybody else". The applicator working for the company is supposed to be licensed no matter what chemical is being applied. They need to pass a test and are the person in charge of applying the chemical properly. CONTACT THE COMPANY. Did you take pictures? A friend of mine used to work for chemlawn- sprayed the wrong person's yard and killed a bunch of flowers and got fired for it.

Ever watch these guys at work? I often see them walking forward into the spray mist/ wet grass that they just sprayed. Kind of a high pay to qualification ratio, if that explains anything. Anyway, I would be mad, too.

[nctomatoman]

Yes, some of our plants got nailed a few years ago by a zealously poisoning neighbor, spraying to his hearts content on a windy day. He was likewise very apologetic....what was particularly sad about it was watching his two dogs and his two boys cavort on the lawn that was soaked with that stuff. Oh well....

[duajones]

I do plan on contacting the company. The neighbor is suppose to supply me with that info tomorrow. Our conversation actually turned out pretty well considering how it started. The good thing is that I dont think I will have a problem with him personally on this matter in the future.
His lawn service is another matter. I plan to talk to the owner of the company and to be honest, I wont be real polite when we do talk. I plan to vent my frustrations to him as I have here but much more aggressively.

[newatthiskat]

I had that happen last year. Lost several plants and had to revive 5 others. I have a bunch of neighbors spraying all kinds of things. The biggest culprit actually has a garden himself. He sprayed something on it last year and told his wife and kid that they could not go to the garden for 3 days. They eat the stuff?????
Kat

[matertoo]

Duane: Sorry about your bad luck with your neighbor's lawn service. From experience, most companies that apply herbicides are responsible and try to make things right when they mess up. Hold their feet to the fire and let us know how things turn out. Good luck.

Paul

[duajones]

Of the three plants, the BBB looks like it will not make it and looks terrible. The IS and CP are trying and look like they are going to bush out and have new leaders. A few days ago I gave these plants no chance but these two have bounced back. I thoroughly rinsed these plants and have watered them much more than the others. Should I continue to rinse and water? Or should I just pull them and move on?

[recruiterg]

My neighbor doesn't spray weeds, but he has a space on the property bordering my yard which he said at one time he had planned to put a garden in, but never got around to it. The space is completely full of Canada Thistle in mid summer. He goes in and knocks them down with a weed wacker once or twice a summer, but needless to say, I am constantly picking Canada Thistle out of my garden and my yard. It drives me absolutely crazy, but at least it doesn't affect my plants.

[Barbee]

Duane,
I'd price replacement plants including shipping from Darrel before calling the lawn company. Then when they ask how can they rectify the situation, you have the info at your fingertips. If you can show them $$ wise how much it will cost to replace these plants and make them realize that these are not plants you can purchase at a box store for 1.29 a 6 pack, it might make the lawn company a little more careful the next time they are spraying around someone's garden.

While your two plants sound like they might be recovering, how long is this going to set them back on production? Don't you have a limited window there before the heat sets in?

[Zana]

When this happened to me, it affected about 25 plants, at least. I took them all out of their containers, gave them a bit of a bath in about a 3 to 5% peroxide solution with a mild soap. I dunked the complete plants into a big old fashioned wash tub. Then I rinsed them thoroughly. Then I soaked them again, but this time in bath that included compost tea and organic fertiliser. And I soaked them for about 3 hours. Again almost the complete plant (there were no fruit on the plant when it happened but there were flowers, and I removed all of those). I lost about 12 to 14 of them, but was able to salvage the rest. (Can't say the same for the plants and flowers that were in the garden beds closest to the property line. They were all killed...including some newly planted dwarf specimen/ornamental trees.) I figure it set those plants back about 3-4 weeks...and considering I don't have as long a growing season as you do down your way, that was a major problem in my books. I had to park those puppies in the warmest, sunniest spot on the concrete patio for the rest of the season, so that I could get anything from them before the snow flew.

I dragged the neighbour over and told him he could watch what I was doing to try and save stuff. But I was going to hand him the bill for anything that died. And I did. Told him he could fight it out with the weed and feed boys....and that he might want to check out his own ornamental flower beds. Turns out his own got wasted too...so now he had even more reason to be going after the weed and feed boys.

Dunno if that might help you Duane...but anything might be better than nothing.

Zana

[Wi-sunflower]

I too had a neighbor problem but on a much bigger scale than any of you guys and there wasn't anything I could really do about it.

Just a couple of years after moving to the farm we are on, we had our peppers and eggplant in the field on our east property line. The year before I had talked with the farmer next door and asked him to be careful when spraying his corn or soybeans. I told him WHY as most of the chemicals at that time were toxic to vegies. The other reason is because most afternoons in spring we get a cool breeze off Lake Michigan from the south-east.

Well one afternoon when there was that east breeze, I was out doing something and noticed a chemical stink in the air. There were some brushy shrub-trees in bloom at the time that are very pleasant smelling so I knew he was/had just sprayed.

Fortunately those same brushy tree-line plants saved most of my plants. But where ever there was a break in the line, lots of plants died. The spray penetrated quite a way as the wind was strong enough that he shouldn't have been spraying at all, let alone near a property line.

I was livid as some of those hot peppers killed were very hard seeds to find. But he was known in the neighborhood as the "dumb @#" part time farmer. How he ever got his chemical permit is beyond comprehension.

He sold the farm just a couple of years later so we didn't have to worry about him after that. Except for some acres across the street that we use. There is an odd area there that never seems to grow much of anything. Our guess is that's because it's right next to a "wet hole" where we think he may have dumped or spilled a tank of something years ago. Over the years tho even that area is getting better.

I know this info isn't much comfort to anyone that is going thru losing their plants. Just know that it happens to all of us even if we are as careful as can be.

Carol