Love Shows
On one side of our front walk there is a column of golden euonymus, standing like little toy soldiers across from the hedge of dark green holly that runs beside the house on the other side of the front walk. For the five years before Ping arrived, these plants were mostly in survival mode. The workers who come weekly kept the holly trimmed back so much that they were killing the plants. The golden euonymus was also kept tightly trimmed, and was starving for water and attention, its long stems nearly bare of leaves. The azaleas and other plants in the front of our home were suffering from the same maladies.
Stop trimming our plants, Ping ordered the workers when she arrived. You are killing them. She even put signs on the windows near the plants to remind the workers. Ping doesn't speak Spanish and many of the workers speak little English, but she got the point across. Every day she babied the plants, pouring a mixture of water and milk on the plants that were in the worst condition, and giving all of the plants water during the hot summer evenings. The golden euonymus has gone from looking bedraggled to standing sturdy and proud, adding probably 50% to their height and more than that to their girth. The holly hedge also started to grow after years of stagnation, and this spring it made significant gains, filling out the places where the dead or dying spots formerly existed.
Instead of allowing the workers to attack the hedge with their power trimmers, I walked beside it with my little hand snippers last spring and this spring after it had added new growth. I trimmed only those branches that had shot out too wide and too high so that they were more in line with the rest of the hedge. What we have now is a healthy and happy looking hedge that faces and challenges the now proud looking golden euonymus toy soldiers to guard the walkway to our front door area.
Ping's work shamed the work crew into replacing the azalea bushes in front of home that had died from their rough treatment, and as they left the bushes alone, Ping gave them her individualized attention. You need some milk and water. You need lots of water. You need to be trimmed just so. She paid special attention to a different kind of holly bush that was ugly and scarred and mostly dying from the constant severe trimming that had been done to it for way too many years.
Two years later the bushes have responded by becoming full and healthy looking, no longer being terrorized by men with electric death in their hands. Instead, they have received the love and attention of a beautiful Chinese woman who has paid the price for their health and safety. Her legs and arms bear the scars of the mosquitoes that have enjoyed a sudden new buffet of Chinese food. I have been lucky that it has rained so much while Ping has been away this summer. She will return to find that her handiwork has not suffered in her absence, but you can be sure that the plants have missed her constant love and attention nevertheless.
Stop trimming our plants, Ping ordered the workers when she arrived. You are killing them. She even put signs on the windows near the plants to remind the workers. Ping doesn't speak Spanish and many of the workers speak little English, but she got the point across. Every day she babied the plants, pouring a mixture of water and milk on the plants that were in the worst condition, and giving all of the plants water during the hot summer evenings. The golden euonymus has gone from looking bedraggled to standing sturdy and proud, adding probably 50% to their height and more than that to their girth. The holly hedge also started to grow after years of stagnation, and this spring it made significant gains, filling out the places where the dead or dying spots formerly existed.
Instead of allowing the workers to attack the hedge with their power trimmers, I walked beside it with my little hand snippers last spring and this spring after it had added new growth. I trimmed only those branches that had shot out too wide and too high so that they were more in line with the rest of the hedge. What we have now is a healthy and happy looking hedge that faces and challenges the now proud looking golden euonymus toy soldiers to guard the walkway to our front door area.
Ping's work shamed the work crew into replacing the azalea bushes in front of home that had died from their rough treatment, and as they left the bushes alone, Ping gave them her individualized attention. You need some milk and water. You need lots of water. You need to be trimmed just so. She paid special attention to a different kind of holly bush that was ugly and scarred and mostly dying from the constant severe trimming that had been done to it for way too many years.
Two years later the bushes have responded by becoming full and healthy looking, no longer being terrorized by men with electric death in their hands. Instead, they have received the love and attention of a beautiful Chinese woman who has paid the price for their health and safety. Her legs and arms bear the scars of the mosquitoes that have enjoyed a sudden new buffet of Chinese food. I have been lucky that it has rained so much while Ping has been away this summer. She will return to find that her handiwork has not suffered in her absence, but you can be sure that the plants have missed her constant love and attention nevertheless.
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