Whack-o-matic
Whack-o-matic
By Tammy Clayton, Fri Dec 9th
Copyright © 2005 Tammy Clayton Morning coffee with the internet has become a tradition of minein recent years. The internet holds a much greater variety ofinformation than the newspaper, as well as less depressingthings to read at the beginning of the day. No one should haveto wake up with murder and mayhem in their face. A more pleasantmindset is found in waking to check the weather, respond to anote from a friend, or reading about an exciting new plant. Thismorning I went to look for further information on a particularlynifty new plant on one of my vendor’s sites. Not finding that Iclicked on another link that caught my attention in their GardenWriters section. "Meatballs, Soapboxes and Tuna Cans", to be precise.
To a person who has never been employed within the landscapeindustry, that phrase would bring to mind food. To insiders itwould have a far different meaning. Of course where I worked itwas baseballs and cubes. So this morning’s coffee was sippedbetween chuckles. The author (head of sales) I would venture to say is youngerthan 50. Those over 50 feel that these balls, cubes, footballsor tuna cans are a staple that is required in the landscape. Forthe life of me I have never understood why we must have them.What is so necessary about using a shrub far to large for itsplacement and whacking off it’s limbs to shape it into anunnatural form? Off with its head! It should wear a size 42 longjacket, but we will force it to fit comfortably into a 10 short.It is interesting to note that also helpless poodles have alsofallen victim to this manner of unnatural shaping and they arenot plants. A month ago I witnessed a house cat shorn in thismanner. Mr. Woods, who wrote the afore mentioned article, has developedthe opinion that it is an inherent human instinct. That wehumans have so little that we actually have complete controlover that our psyche has tuned in to the helpless shrubs in ouryard. While I giggled often while reading his words, it struckme that he has a good point. Why else would we so cruellyinhibit the wild beauty of a shrub? In my early years I had noreason to argue with my father, the professional landscaper asto why we must do this. Quite the contrary, originally Iassisted him in his whacking while trying to mimic his methods.It wasn’t until I started to design plantings and began to seeplants for their own individual beauty that I began to questionthis barbaric practice. It has come to be a long standingargument between us over the years. He refuses to budge from hisPro Juniper stance, insisting we simply MUST have the pricklyold things. Yews and Burning Bushes have their place and arequite lovely if not placed where they can be gently shaped notbeaten in submission twice a season. During my contracting days, I would arrive at a clients home fora meeting about a landscape facelift to find the sad remains ofBurning Bushes, Yews and Junipers that had resided along thewalk or foundation for decades. All of them left much to bedesired in the looks department after the last harsh whacking.Common sense told me that following decades of cruel treatment,the poor things have given up growing hair. Why should theycontinue to grow it if for the past 25 years every attempt wasquickly lopped off? How much squelching of creativity can abeing endure before throwing in the towel? In voicing thisthought to successful lawyers and surgeons , I must admit I wasrewarded with raised eyebrows. Why do we insist on planting ashrub that will grow eight foot tall and 12 foot wide in a 30inch wide space and insist it does not exceed those confines? Iam in agreement with Mr. Woods, it is one area to have completecontrol over in our lives. So there I stand with this super successful professional, a manof high learning, who wants to know how we can coax this spentrow of 5 foot tall trunks and stems along his walk into growingmore hair in the bottoms. He thinks that fertilizer cures all ofman’s cruelty. (Remember that you must see things through theeye of the plant?) How am I to explain this to this person! Myprofessional self developed a cunning approach. “A landscape hasa life expectancy of about 20 years. Yours seems to be about 5years overdue for replanting.” If this was not enough toconvince the customer, I would go on to ask how long
thewallpaper in their kitchen had hung there. Explaining thatredecorating outdoors was just as necessary to variety in lifethan it was to keep up to date with their interior décor. Butthey wanted back what they had before it turned into barebranches! The issue of certain control may very well be theanswer. Now I am not against hedges. I am not anti-evergreen. Pruning,thinning and shaping is of definite necessity to full and lovelyshrubs and even some trees. Even every other aspect of life welook for the right thing to accomplish the task, but when itcomes to the plants we place in our yards we seem to fall shortin the search for the proper element. Proper planning should bethe first consideration and whacking could become almostobsolete. It is good to know that plant breeders are busilydeveloping new Arborvitaes and Yews that will stay in a nicelittle meatball shape without whacking. News that will lessenthe maintenance you must forfeit your weekend to perform,alleviate the need to butcher the bushes and make all the hedgetrimmer companies hold their breath over next year’s thirdquarter earnings. As for the aspect of proper planning vs. constant replacement,if the space is 30 inches wide, then it would be best toconsider installing only those shrubs that will never exceed 4foot in width. Remember, a little shaping is good and a harshwhacking is lowering the life expectancy of the elements in yourlandscape. Proper planning is one of the best tools in creatinga low maintenance planting. ------------------- Read more great Gardening articles at:http://www.lostintheflowers.com About the author:Raised by a highly respected & successful landscape contractorin the metro Detroit area, Clayton wanted a career in anythingbut landscaping! Now an award-winning landscape designer,Clayton runs FlowervilleFarms, a mail-order nursery in Michigan. Read more at LostInTheFlowers.com. |
