# The azalea mocks me no more **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 5, 2004, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-azalea-mocks-me-no-more/243704 "2004-05-05T20:06:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-azalea-mocks-me-no-more/243704/21 "2004-05-06T00:55:16Z")
> [@lainaf](#): > > Yesterday the lonely little azalea was brutally murdered, along with every other shrub, bush & flower I’ve planted in my front yard in the past four years. … Today I checked out the damage more thorougly. Gone are: > \*[ul] > [li]3 forsythia bushes (4 years old)[/li][li]2 gardenia bushes (came with the house)[/li][li]the lonely little azalea[/li][li]3 privet saplings, which appear to have been ripped up by the roots, leaving holes in the ground. [/li][li]the gladiolas that were just starting to come up[/li][li]the daffodil foliage, which should not be cut down because it feeds the bulbs for next year[/li][/ul] \* Not the glads! _Not the **glads**!_ _pathetic whimpering_ Sweet baby Jesus, what is _wrong_ with people? I just … I don’t … oh, mother of God! Even a half-dead, mocking azalea _still looks like a goddamn bush!_ Don’t these people know anything about _anything?_ How did they even figure out how to start the friggin’ mower? If this guy were my neightbor, and those dolts had done that to my yard, I’m afraid I’d be in jail right now, because they’d all be dead. Death by garden tools. You’re a bigger person than I am. I am sorry for your terrible loss. I really am. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-azalea-mocks-me-no-more/243704/22 "2004-05-06T01:10:13Z")
Y’all have worked up a lot of righteous anger on my behalf and I appreciate it. The situation has been handled in a non-combative way. The mower guy came to my door to discuss the situation, which took a lot of courage. He’s a nice guy, and he doesn’t have a big company – it’s usually just him and his two teenage sons. The person that tore up the front yard was a guy he’d just hired, who is obviously an idiot. The mower guy apologized profusely and offered to repair my mower for me in compensation. So I now have a mowed lawn and a working mower – I’m sure it would’ve cost at least $100 to get the mower fixed, and I wouldn’t have had it for weeks. Mower guy was unaware that I had not given the neighbor authority to hire him. I live in a small country community, and I have wonderful neighbors. We help each other out here. I don’t want to start a feud with my neighbor over something that was well-intentioned on his part. **Inigo Montoya,** Maybe it’s different elsewhere, but here it’s impossible to get teenage boys to do yard work. They say they will, then they don’t show up or they do a lousy job. or they abuse the tools. Even the poorest kids seem to have designer-brand clothes and all the latest tech toys. When they get old enough to really need money, they can get a McJob, which isn’t such hard work. $100 is not out of line for mowing & weed whacking a big nasty lawn. Everyone I know of pays that much. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-azalea-mocks-me-no-more/243704/23 "2004-05-06T01:14:42Z")
**Khiadra,** Thanks for the tip about the pelargoniums. I’ll see if I can find some. ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-azalea-mocks-me-no-more/243704/24 "2004-05-06T01:22:54Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > You should thank them for this one (regarding the privet) I’m starting to think that I’m invisible this is the third time this week that something I have already said has been subsequently brought up and not acknowledged. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-azalea-mocks-me-no-more/243704/25 "2004-05-06T01:28:36Z")
> [@MelCthefirst](#): > > (regarding the privet) > I’m starting to think that I’m invisible this is the third time this week that something I have already said has been subsequently brought up and not acknowledged. I was concurring. My apologies. ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-azalea-mocks-me-no-more/243704/26 "2004-05-06T03:32:42Z")
no problem - I now feel less invisible, thank you ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-azalea-mocks-me-no-more/243704/27 "2004-05-06T03:57:36Z")
**lainaf** , the damage may not be as bad as you fear. The forsythia bushes and the gardenia bushes (which are well-established plants) will probably recover from this extreme pruning, and the glads and daffodils are easily replaced. It’s just the privet bushes and probably the struggling azalea which are going to be total losses. A faint consolation, true, but at least you haven’t lost all your plantings - a few of them are just going to be ugly this summer, that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-azalea-mocks-me-no-more/243704/28 "2004-05-06T12:06:43Z")
> [@lainaf](#): > > Y’all have worked up a lot of righteous anger on my behalf and I appreciate it. The situation has been handled in a non-combative way. Well, that’s wonderful. It does take a big person to own up to what happened and accept responsibility, so it sounds like the landscape firm owner might be a keeper. I really am sorry about your plants that won’t make it. If I could, I’d come help you replant. I know how frustrating it is to have to start over. There is no fence between our yard and our neighbors’, and they have a Rottweiler who runs loose and is very … um … _possessive_. (The previous owner of our house didn’t grow anything but mulch.) He is a sweet dog, but he … um … _possessed_ all the heirloom tomato plants that I started from seed under grow lights in my basement, and now they are dead. Rottweiler urine is some pretty high-test stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2004, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-azalea-mocks-me-no-more/243704/29 "2004-05-06T12:13:17Z")
Olive Branch, MS? Isn’t that out near Byhalia? I have a cousin that lives out there–does all kinds of work depending on the weather. I wonder if he has gotten into lawn mowing as well :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-azalea-mocks-me-no-more/243704.md?page=1)