A few years ago, the "landscapers" (who are really just glorified grass mowers) cut down many of the shrubs around the apartment building I live in & left bare flowerbeds. I can see a large flowerbed from my second story window & decided to do something with it this year. Unfortunately, you may recall, I hurt my foot in June, so was unable to follow through on my plan until early Sept. when pansies came back into the stores. I bought 88 pansy plants that my elderly mom helped me plant & then in Oct. put a row of blue iris bulbs behind them. The garden center lady said that the pansies ought to regrow next spring, sprouting from their roots, so I'm hoping to have both pansies & irises blooming at some point late next spring. If all of the pansies don't come back, hopefully some of them will & perhaps I can buy new ones to fill in.
A number of people in my apartment complex have done similar things.The complex runs along one side of this suburban street. It's always at our own expense & we provide the labor. I guess there's a lot of us tired of looking at the boring bare dirt.The lady who used to live next door had planted a couple small hostas & scraggly marigolds next to the back door, but my pansies covers the whole strip along there & even brought out the colors of her pitiful flowers.
Last Tuesday, the "landscapers" were up to their usual destruction, only this time it was by my pansies.They were picking up dead leaves, a bunch of which had surrounded my pansies which would keep them warm in the snow. The guy blasted the leaf blower right at the plants & then angled his mower alongside of the plants to chew up the sodden grass.He'd messed up my rock lined border & squashed some plants. I was outside as fast as I could & began berating him about his actions. He kept talking over me & finally turned the mower back on &drove away. I called the custodian & left a voice mail complaining about the carelessness. The management really ought to be the one beautifying the grounds, paying for the plants & labor, but they're too cheap, despite hefty matinence fees. So when residents take this on themselves, the workers should be reminded to respect what's been done. All the landscapers do is continually cut down trees, run their mowers over wet ground so that it rips up the grass & goof off.
This morning, I spent an hour carrying leaves from the curb back to the flowerbed so that there was some insulation around my plants. I had a small bucket, so it took a million trips, but hopefully, the layer of shredded leaves will protect them from the worst of winter & in spring it will be green & blooming again.
The photo below is from September, a week or so after the pansies were installed. It's taken from ground level, which is a slightly different angle than what I see from my living room window upstairs. The blank area on the left is where an anthill was, so I didn't want to disturb it.
