When Garden Help Goes Wrong

[Nyboy]

Seed in the antique world people pay extra money for original finish. On the antique roadshow a woman bought in a 18 century desk, the appraiser found a piece of the desk that had broken off and placed in a draw. At sometime the desk had been refinished but not the broken piece it still had original finish. The woman was told her desk will bring about $20,000 at auction, if it was never refinished would bring about $80,000 big different in price.

 

[seedcorn]

I do not doubt that at all. I just don't understand it. Now I could if it had layers of paint on it. Has to be stripped and re finished.

I live a different life that I won't spend $20,000 on an antique. $80,000 had better be a house.....

 

[Nyboy]

Antique dealers have a saying, old money will buy a antique and want it to show its age. New money will buy a antique and want it to look new.

 

[ducks4you]

If that girl were available one hour/week on the weekend, you could save yourself a lot of work.

 

[thistlebloom]

I don't care how old my money is. Who looks at those dates anyway?

I was not going to talk about this. It was going to stay my secret.
But now I'm ready to blab to the whole internet. Haha.

Last week I came home from work, (still easing into work so I was home before dinner time) and decided to get some yard work done while it was light. There I was, pruning and raking and feeling all efficient and busting out proud of myself for not waiting for a marathon Saturday to start cleanup. My sweet husband came out and we talked about getting after the underbrush in a few areas before it leafed out and became harder to get to.

He went and got loppers and clippers and started working at it.
We both finished and came in to start dinner.

I went back out to play with the dogs and nearly had a heart attack.
Lets just say that there will be no lilacs blooming at my house for a long, long time.

In shock I went in and said - 'you cut my lilacs down!' but I didn't yell, I was still in shock. He was shocked too. 'Well you should have been paying attention to what I was doing, I thought they were scrub brush'.

Okay. THAT was funny and ridiculous and almost made me laugh in spite of the situation, but he was obviously mad at himself and feeling very stupid for cutting down 12 year old landscape shrubs.

In his defense, a dormant lilac does look very much like a lot of our wild undergrowth, and I had planted these in a roughed out area that I intended to get more "landscaped" when I got other projects done.

So, on the positive side, there's no rush to landscape that area now, and really, the trees had grown tall enough to make too much shade for lilacs to bloom happily. In ten more years, it would have been far too shady without taking some of them out. So I'm looking at it as a fresh start and he saved me some work.

And that folks is why I garden alone.

But he's a great help in the truly unlandscaped areas, and who else is such a great enabler? Encouraging me to ride again, and building sheds and shelters and fences and he puts up with my crap which is worth more than 1000 lilacs.

 

[catjac1975]

I don't care how old my money is. Who looks at those dates anyway?

I was not going to talk about this. It was going to stay my secret.
But now I'm ready to blab to the whole internet. Haha.

Last week I came home from work, (still easing into work so I was home before dinner time) and decided to get some yard work done while it was light. There I was, pruning and raking and feeling all efficient and busting out proud of myself for not waiting for a marathon Saturday to start cleanup. My sweet husband came out and we talked about getting after the underbrush in a few areas before it leafed out and became harder to get to.

He went and got loppers and clippers and started working at it.
We both finished and came in to start dinner.

I went back out to play with the dogs and nearly had a heart attack.
Lets just say that there will be no lilacs blooming at my house for a long, long time.

In shock I went in and said - 'you cut my lilacs down!' but I didn't yell, I was still in shock. He was shocked too. 'Well you should have been paying attention to what I was doing, I thought they were scrub brush'.

Okay. THAT was funny and ridiculous and almost made me laugh in spite of the situation, but he was obviously mad at himself and feeling very stupid for cutting down 12 year old landscape shrubs.

In his defense, a dormant lilac does look very much like a lot of our wild undergrowth, and I had planted these in a roughed out area that I intended to get more "landscaped" when I got other projects done.

So, on the positive side, there's no rush to landscape that area now, and really, the trees had grown tall enough to make too much shade for lilacs to bloom happily. In ten more years, it would have been far too shady without taking some of them out. So I'm looking at it as a fresh start and he saved me some work.

And that folks is why I garden alone.

But he's a great help in the truly unlandscaped areas, and who else is such a great enabler? Encouraging me to ride again, and building sheds and shelters and fences and he puts up with my crap which is worth more than 1000 lilacs.

Even My husband wouldn't do that. But praise for you for not yelling at him.I try never to complain about his mistakes he does not take it well. Mostly he does a great job.

 

[ducks4you]

Regarding antiques, when we were active Civil War Reenactors (1986-2011) most of us used any antique guns, etc. for the first season, just to do so, and then used reproductions afterwards. Distressed furniture belongs in a museum! We have plenty of old (100yo+) pieces of furniture, etc. in our house and WE refinish so that we can enjoy the beauty of the wood. There is a 1890's dresser that my DD currently has and she plans to get it refinished and the mirror resilvered some time in the future. My MIL had this in her basement with a sticky paper over the top of the dresser, and nobody else wanted it when we cleared out her house after her death, so I took it. It was moved from the living room of our other house, to a downstairs bedroom of my current house to an Upstairs bedroom, back downstairs and then to my DD's house.l
I was at a museum and I saw the exact same woodworking filigrie on their furniture and THEY knew the date, and THAT is how I could place it's period. It was so well made that it continues to be serviceable. Family heirloom owned by family.

 

[Nyboy]

Nothing beats a family heirloom

 

[digitS']

I think I get it. There is some artistry in everything.


Distressed doesn't make for beauty unless it has an appropriate setting. Most people probably enjoy looking at rocky cliffs and such.

I'm not sure if "decaying" has any appeal to me ...

I was a terrible boss. The outfit I worked for tried to put me in that position on Saturdays and when the head designer was on vacation. It was exhausting for me!

It wasn't that I had such exacting standards for a little crew of what could be called "paid interns" from the local college. After all, their creative skills were greater than mine. The roles we tended to play were upside-down, tho! I helped them ... If they did anything that I actually knew about and failed to do it efficiently, I helped by correcting or completing their work. Oh sure! It was easy for them to just step back and allow me to do that ... Played. I'd get played, altho they didn't have to "work" very hard at keeping this fact from me while I was being overwhelmed with my "responsibilities." The proof was that I would go home far more tired than on more normal days and resented when days rolled around for me to take this minor management role.

digitS'

 

[digitS']

Oh, and what's "scrub brush?"

If I appreciate them - then I don't want them gone. If I mess with things for artistic purposes, there's an excellent chance that they will turn out worse than if I'd let nature take its course ...

... probably snowberries and soap bushes ... broad-leaf sage ... might have had a serviceberry and a rock maple in there!!!

Steve