On Painting the House

"We have to paint the house," said Mr. Mouse.
"Oh no, what will happen to all my plants?" I moaned. I'd seen it before. Trampled seedings. Trash everywhere. Paint everywhere. Disaster.

Some plants would have to go, too close to the house. Here's the hole where the unnamed Eirogonum lived. I know it would regrow quite quickly.

Here's the hole where the non-native Rhododendron lived. Unfortunately, it had gotten too large and had not taken kindly to a fairly radical pruning. Well, good riddance.

Two painters arrived to do estimates. The first one listened sagely to my requests for protecting the plants, but when I requested that someone one the job should speak English, he hesitated slightly. So, another company with multiple jobs and employees that might or might not care very much.

The second one was baffled by my request."What does it matter," he said. "You can just get a bunch of new plants from Home Depot for a few bucks." When I begged to differ, and pointed out that several of the plants were over 10 years old, otheres had cost $50.00 when I bought them a few years ago, I was surprised and suddenly much more understanding. "Oh, sure, I can protect the plants!" he said. "No problem. I'm sure you'll be happy." Now this sounded like someone who was actually going to do the work himself, and who had done a lot of painting in his life. We accepted his bid and he was true to his word. We were very happy with the thorough job he did, and the large Arctostaphylos St. Helena (first picture) and Salvia Clevlandii (below) escaped unscathed.

Note to self: Next time you want for workers around the house to respect your plants, tell them how much they cost. Money talks.