Gardener's Nightmare!

What do you suppose my dear husband could say to me that would completely ruin my Monday?

Try this: "Honey, they're going to paint the roofs this afternoon".

My reaction: An immediate sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I had planned a nice, productive afternoon in the garden. Ha!

The collective roofs includes the barn and several outbuildings, plus the 2 houses on the farm.
Every summer a crew works their way up from South Carolina doing painting jobs from state to state.

There's no warning. They just show up, negotiate a price, and go to work.

It's been 13 years since we had the buildings painted, and it shows. The barn and sheds need to be done, but it's very expensive so they'll have to wait. However the roofs were rusting, and it's easier and less costly to have them painted than to replace them, so DH agreed to have it done. This meant we had to move all the window boxes, containers, hanging baskets and anything else I wanted to protect from paint specks.

Now picture this: My gardens are blooming madly...roses, clematis, lilies...all sorts of beautiful blooms, in beds all around the house, and by the shed opposite the back door. In my mind's eye I could see them liberally speckled with silver aluminum paint and/or crushed under careless feet. The men assured me, "Oh don't worry about your flowers Ma'am, we'll cover them up".
I was skeptical, to say the least.

This fellow had absolutely no fear of heights. He made climbing and walking around on the roofs look like it was the easiest thing in the world!

The pink garden on the corner of the shed opposite the back door had been looking particularly pretty, with roses, snapdragons and a dahlia blooming beautifully beside a large pink-flowered spirea bush. Those poor plants were under the plastic for hours, being cooked by the heat and humidity (temperatures reached into the 90's/32º+C), and battered by the plastic.

'Change of Heart', planted just last fall, was bearing her first 2 blooms.

'Wild Blue Yonder' had a cluster of gorgeous blooms.

The lovely 'Sea Pearl' had opened fully, as you can see in the wider shot above, and had faded to a softer shade than this vibrant coral it begins with.

This pretty dahlia, 'Park Princess', was given to me by my friend, Marie. It was beaten mercilessly, but survived better than the roses, which were looking very sad at the end of the day.

Do you see the plastic "covering" the tall Golden Glow plants growing behind one of DH's fences beside the shed? (click the link if you'd like to see them blooming last September). This is typical of the promised cover, and one of the more successful attempts. The wind was whipping that plastic around crazily, and keeping it in place was next to impossible.

I was having a very bad day....and they hadn't started on the house roof yet!

When they finally did, the bad day became even worse!

I must give the men credit for at least trying to keep the plastic over the flowers (although one of them was very cranky about it), but with the wind fighting against them it was a losing battle for the most part.

The orange Asiatic lily was looking spectacular.

But now it's a little worse for wear.

Clematis Carnaby has been putting on her best show ever, but now she's speckled with silver.

Notice how the blooms fade with time.

They start out this lovely color......

......and fade to a lighter shade. Here's a picture taken the day before the paint job.

And after.

Could we perhaps imagine this as fairy dust? It actually looks rather pretty then, doesn't it?

Covering the Jackmanii Clematis was a challenge because of its height, but the men managed to get the plastic up over it, with a little extra encouragement from me ;) The wind blew the plastic away from the center of the garden, but I was relieved to see that the Jackmanii fared quite well.

This sweet pink rose somehow managed to escape with just the leaves being spotted.

Queen Elizabeth kept a few buds tightly closed until the next day, so here she is with 3 out of 6 unspoiled blooms....a small victory!

Mr. Lincoln is not quite as perfect as he was on Sunday.

I was chatting with the boss in the shade of a tree, watching the proceedings, and he said, "If a little paints gets on the flowers Ma'am, it won't stick. They don't make paint to stick to flowers. It'll wear right off in a few days".

He obviously hasn't hung around for a few days to see if this does indeed happen.

It doesn't.

The hostas took a real beating. No one bothered to cover them up.

The spectacula Gloriosa Daisies began blooming just recently. Some of them didn't fare too well.

The gardens on the north side of the house weren't covered either, and ended up quite paint spattered.

But new blooms will replace the old after a while, and we'll be left with just speckled leaves.

This patch of Sweet William has been blooming for weeks, lasting much longer than several other clumps. It looked pretty with the sun drops (evening primrose) and foxglove. DH and I remarked several times about its longevity and how lovely it was. It got stomped on and is looking rather sad now.

Most of the time during the painting of the house roof I stayed inside because I couldn't bear to see the potential damage being done. The heat and humidity were getting to me, and I needed to vent, so I sat down at the computer and wrote a despairing e-mail to my dear blog friend, Alice.

We sometimes chat using Skype, a free downloadable program which allows users to talk over the internet free of charge. In the early evening I heard the familiar noise coming from my computer speakers. It was sweet Alice calling to commiserate with me. She said her husband, Richard wanted to know what color the roofs were being painted, and she thought that was worth a phone call :) We had a good chuckle. What a pick-me-up that was - just what the doctor ordered! Thank you Alice!

Aren't blog friends wonderful?

Here's what the pink garden looked like this morning. Only one drooping rose bloom remains. The spirea flower clusters are turning brown, but the dahlia is still holding her slightly tattered head high.

The gardens around the side porch are actually looking quite good, and the damage is hardly noticeable, as long as we stand far enough away so that we can't see the silver specks of paint.

Tuesday was a much better day.....and the roofs look good! :)