How to handle problem with Lawn Mowing crew

[SPedigrees]

I want to thank everyone for the replies. Pulsegleaner, yours is truly a horror story! I cannot even believe that any sane person would deliberately destroy a grave/memorial stone to a beloved pet. There are just no words for this atrocity. You have my heartfelt sympathies. :-( I would have been so furious and so upset! Ditto with your blackberry plantings, So Lucky. I think that both your tales of woe helped me to recover my equanimity, because my own problems totally pale by comparison. Another thing that helped was taking my dog out for a walk tonight and noting all the things that this mower guy has done consistently right. The posts that were destroyed were ancient old recycled fiberglas posts that were once used for an electric fence at least 15 years ago, so they had zero value. I think I'm going to order a whole bunch more of the flexible reflective posts and just use them to more plainly mark areas I want the mower guys to avoid. I can suck up the cost if any are broken, but I think they will bend rather than break.

One of the benefits to hiring people to do nothing other than mow is that that it is basically a mechanical task that does not require creativity. Once you hire an artistic person to do landscaping they might take liberties and act according to their own original visions.

I appreciate all the replies, and if they taught me anything, it is how much worse my problems could have been! I think I just needed to vent my aggravation before moving on!

 

[AMKuska]

We had similar problems with our gardeners. They literally could not grasp the concept of "no". They weeded out my side flower pots (in the process pulling out my apple seedlings) mowed over the Mazus (cause they couldn't tell it from weeds when it wasn't flowering) edged so close to the stump garden that they shaved off anything closer than six inches from the edge (and then trenched another six inches around it. Actually the current ones cut too close as well ), dug up our mulch piles and carted them away, then tried to sell us spare mulch from another job (and dumped it in the road in front of the house when we refused), tore out the flowers in our flower garden to try and get us to hire them to plant other flowers.....

However the towering offense was when they went into the shade garden, smashed the tombstone of Pesto (our first cat) then threw the pieces over the edge (because their sect of Catholicism held that, since animals don't have souls, they shouldn't get grave markers.)

OMG I'd have seen red. I actually got into a fight with my neighbors recently around whether pets have souls. She reassured me that my dog (very much alive and nestled at my feet) was just a biological toy. -.-

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is why we love THISTLE!

 

[Beekissed]

Rebar instead of T posts...cheaper, easy to pound in, can tie an orange flag/tape on them and if they run them over, they will definitely damage their equipment, which you will not be liable for since you will have shown them not to mow there. Get it in writing and have them sign it that you have shown them not to mow there.

Or, as others have suggested and if possible, get another lawn service.

I know what it's like to be a single woman living alone...seems like men think we are all helpless ninnies that don't have a clue about anything, so they can do anything they want to us, our cars, our land, etc. and we can't do a single thing about it...except pay them for it all.

 

[Zeedman]

I know what it's like to be a single woman living alone...seems like men think we are all helpless ninnies that don't have a clue about anything, so they can do anything they want to us, our cars, our land, etc. and we can't do a single thing about it...except pay them for it all.

Only the wrong men think that way. Sorry to hear of all the bad experiences, and I know some here have gone through h@ll... but it isn't just men raking people over the coals, and it isn't only women being taken advantage of. A jerk is a jerk, regardless of who they are dealing with. The problem is that we have a legal system which empowers jerks.

Which, to make a long story short, is the reason I trust no one else (with the exception of trusted family) with my yard, my home, or my life.

 

[thistlebloom]

And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is why we love THISTLE!

Why, thank you Rhodie.

I confess I don't understand giving repeated chances to someone who looks you in the face, says they understand, promises to follow your wishes, and then blatantly does the job wrong.

There is something that disturbs me deeply about a person like that and I wouldn't turn my back on them, much less waste my time reinforcing the area they keep knowingly mowing wrong.

Good lawn service providers must be very scarce in Vermont.

 

[majorcatfish]

yes big stakes in the ground help..
before leaving put a couple stakes on the corners so she would know where to mow..
while on road trip dw hired a lawn company to do the property dw showed them the stakes..

crap they did a great job while gone mowed and weedeated 2 of the 3 acres for 50.00 a trip.

 

[ducks4you]

First, ANYBODY that says that they use a "sect of Catholicism" to blame on their bad behavior is NO Christian! Let's clear up any notion that we would ever behave like this.
2nd, I don't know about your infirmities. Are you not well enough to do the trim around your valuable plants? DH doesn't respect my plants and I have only myself to blame if I don't use the push mower to trim before he uses the riding mower.
I am very attached to all of my animals. HowEVER, Dave Ramsey (Christian financial advisor) advises that you may have to break the bank to care for a spouse/child/parent who is ill, but maybe you should not go into bankruptcy for your sick dog. STILL, I don't want ANYBODY destroying a grave/marker for my beloved pets. Couldn't bury the horses, so no markers.
In lieu of these thoughts, have you considered rebar? My friend has an open wooden fence on his property and his neighbor kept knocking the edge over bc the the neighbor was mowing into my friend's yard. I suggested that he pound some rebar into and adjacent to the base of the fenceposts in question. Mowing over rebar will destroy your blade and really screw up your mower.

 

[Prairie Rose]

The farmer that works the fields around the house likes to plant two extra rows into our yard each spring. He's my father's boss and a nice guy, he just can't see where the line is anymore because the herbicide applications kill out the grass next to the field. I have gotten passive aggressive about it and conveniently left out something big right on the edge of the yard when they are planting. Usually my wheelbarrow or a lawnmower. It embarrasses my father, but I'm tired of losing more yard space every year to field corn. I'm debating dropping a shed right on the edge, just to make my point in a way big enough my father can't move it after I go to work.

 

[ducks4you]

I have let trees grow up outside of my fenceline for just that purpose. I can chop down the limbs but the 2-3 ft stumps remain and that has become the Best way to remind the farmer that it's my property he is using.