Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Member of the Board

Around the first week of December 2005 a main water line for the irrigation system sprung a leak in a previous repair site and there was a lovely artesian spring in the middle of someone’s driveway coming up through the concrete. I reported it to the property manager many times for repair. Over the course of several months the wet spot became a small creek and the owner tired of the pee stain on his drive requested I shut the system down.

The winter rains had ended and without water the island beds in the association began to die. Water on and water off to try and save the landscape, but the leak had become so bad the beds of pink and lavender Pentas all died.

I emptied the beds of the dried brown carcasses. When the leak was finally repaired in May of 2006 I was told to hold off on replanting the island beds. After a summer of meetings to discuss what to plant and it seems a replenishment of funds to the account depleted by warring factions, I got the go ahead and instructions to plant the second week of August 2006.

They liked the entry of another association and wanted something similar to that.












I was told to plant two rings around the trees. The outer ring was to be the striped grass like they have at that other place. The inner ring at the base of the tree was to be Impatiens. Sounds lovely, no problem.














I went and purchased a shorter variety of the Aztec Grass, Ophiopogon jaburan and several flats of pink and lavender Impatiens to replant the tree wells. The shorter Liriope I felt would be easier to rake the Royal Poinciana pods out of since their birth control experiment on the trees was not looking successful.














There are three identical beds in the association. When I was planting one of them an owner walked over to look and I could tell he did not look pleased. Oh Lord here we go I thought. He said nothing just grunted.

This morning El Presidente pulled up by me while I was working. I looked at him and said what have I done wrong now? He said it isn’t you, they are after me. So and so had a major screaming fit over the new plantings. It is unbelievable how irate these people get. I followed your directions correctly didn’t I? Yes you did.

So it seems there was a slight alteration when I was given the directions or there was a misunderstanding among the board members about what they agreed on. The basic concept for this planting is exactly what you see. There are two tiny variations that caused a major screaming fit according to the account I heard.

Are you board member material? Can you pick out what is wrong with this picture? Any and all thoughts are welcome. You may even disapprove of the planting concept itself.


5 comments:

christin m p in massachusetts said...

Maybe next time you should tell him to get an illustration of what they want, signed by all the interested members of the condo association.

Of course, I can't judge the concept from an experienced gardener's perspective, but I can judge it by its aesthetic appeal to me personally...

My first impression of it is that it is very neat, but somewhat sparse. For most things, I like lots of open space, but when it comes to plants and flowers, I think there's (almost) no such thing as too many in one area.

Are those plants going to grow bigger, so as to fill in more space, or are they fully grown already?

Cheryl said...

I give. What's the difference?

Christopher C. NC said...

Those plants will fill that bed in completely within about four months. I prefer to have fewer healthy plants than more skinny plants competing for space and food.

That need for instant gratification is a sign Christina that you may have some potential for being a Board Member.

The fit that occured was because the Impatiens were supposed to be the outer ring and they were supposed to be white so as not to clash with the orange flowers of the Royal Poinciana tree.

I wasn't given a color and went with the same pink and lavender color combo that had been in those beds for the previous three years with the perennial flower Pentas.

christin m p in massachusetts said...

Then, if I want to transplant potted plants into the ground outside, will I need to do it before they're fully grown? And how will I know how much space to keep between them, so they'll each have enough food, and won't choke each other out?

I hope the association isn't going to make you start over. I didn't think it was possible for flower colors to clash, since they show up together in nature in such a wide variety of colors.

I hope when all the plants are full grown, that you'll take new pictures of them so we can see it.

Christopher C. NC said...

It all depends on what kind of plant you are talking about in regards to size, timing, spacing, sun or shade, soil needs and ect. You have to know the plant and what it's needs are first.

In a few months I may have forgotten about this so remind me if need be for an updated photo.