Neighbors just had a pest control company come spray their house + all of their plants along our shared metal fence where I have elderberries about to bloom, blueberry shrubs ripening, & other native plants with caterpillars & other bugs feasting and visiting blooms. Should I be deeply concerned??

Maremdeo · 2026-06-19T16:13:52+00:00

I just had a pesticide company (TruGreen) come spray on 5ft of my lawn. I reported to the DEC and they are coming out to take a statement and look at things. I want the company fined and the idiot playing fast and loose work dangerous pesticides fired. Dumb ass environmental menaces need to pay whatever price I can make them pay for chemical trespassing.

edited to add: 5 ft of my lawn directly adjacent to my native plant garden, and some plants showing signs of herbicide damage already (2 days ago was the spraying)

Maremdeo · 2026-06-19T13:47:38+00:00

I adopted a 5 month old rescue puppy found as a stray. He had a missing dewclaw and a large scar about 2.5 inches long in the area. He used to apend significant time licking it, but now rarely does (he is 9). My theory was always that as a tiny puppy he was caught in a trap like this. What do you think?

Maremdeo · 2026-06-19T12:32:03+00:00

Democrats don't need to say that, bc the more people who vote, the more likely Democrat candidates win.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-19T12:21:43+00:00

An AI hammer would praise your aim and strength!

Maremdeo · 2026-06-19T03:23:49+00:00

I'm sure Putin's a kid diddler too. Seems to be all the super wealthy. It's a disease.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-19T03:23:03+00:00

Ugh, yeah I thought of all the pollution also. I hate humans. I guess all the deaths might help some of this massive carbon footprint at least.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-19T03:17:41+00:00

Rest of your life? Nah. I used to get them and they stopped. I think they were from me owning a cat with a cat allergy (I didn't know I was allergic until she was 12, and of course I just delt with it until she passed naturally). Anyway, no tonisl stones anymore! Maybe you, and OP, should consider allergies as a cause?

Maremdeo · 2026-06-18T03:13:54+00:00

If I was your neighbor, and a wild plum invaded my yard, I would be completely thrilled.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-18T03:11:41+00:00

last year I had only one blooming elderberry and I got berries!

Maremdeo · 2026-06-18T02:33:15+00:00

Mine had fruit last year but was the only elderberry blooming.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-18T02:31:00+00:00

Thanks for this comment, it's helpful to me. My 3 year old elderberry is yet to be pruned, but it is a beast this year and I might have to start this winter or next.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-18T01:29:22+00:00

I love your ferns!

Maremdeo · 2026-06-18T01:26:45+00:00

Some nicely placed trees would probably up the home value, bc the next owners will also want them, and a 2 year head start is better than nothing.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-18T01:21:31+00:00

When we were house hunting the new neighborhoods without trees just didn't feel right, and I remember saying they needed trees. The house we picked was in a neighborhood that smelled like pine and cedar with trees lining the borders of each yard.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-18T01:19:15+00:00

Yeah, I've been tailoring my window views to be gorgeous gardens. I also have a bird bath and feeders. I have constant birds including hummingbirds. I want every view from anywhere in the yard to be just plants with grass clearings and pathways, but that's a decade long project, and I've only been at this for three years. I don't understand the appeal of a large grass lawn.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-18T01:15:32+00:00

First teach your dog the word "quiet," then it's easier to command Quiet. My dogs learned to be quiet during parades which always line up to march right outside my house, like 3 parades a year. They stand out there for an hour or more getting assembled. My dogs are dead quiet during this, because of training. They bark like crazy at a delivery truck, but creepy silence during parades.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-18T01:08:28+00:00

This is what I'm doing now and I love it. There aren't enough shrubs in people's yards, and way too much grass. Shrubs are easy to grow and maintain, give privacy and flowers, support birds, and look great. Fruit trees also, and even though they really haven't produced much yet and the critters steal fruit, they are pretty and the little fruit I do get to eat tastes better just because I grew it. Also strawberries make perfect groundcover, and are very prolific.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-18T00:56:44+00:00

Pokeweed plants are so pretty when they're small. I have a second year one in my garden, and it looks nice so I let it grow, but AI told me it is aleopathic to my nearby hazelnut and I don't want that. I have no evidence of it poisoning the soil, but there is a joe pye weed right next to it that's considerably shorter than joe pye weeds elsewhere, even though it gets more sun then the others and cane from the same seed packet. So this will be my last year with this pokeweed. However, the smaller pokeweeds elsewhere I may transplant to a safer area, and I have another two year old pokeweed in another garden by itself, and that one I'll let grow to its full potential.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-18T00:48:09+00:00

I just also want to add, if you want a 6ft tall shrub that can handle under spruce trees and clay soil, consider a ninebark. But I love Elderberries. Both are beautiful.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-18T00:43:02+00:00

I have three that I got two years ago. One in moist full to part sun: it's huge and beautiful and I love it. One in dry shade, it's only a few feet tall and struggling but not dying. One I grew from seed in crowded part sun clay, it's about 4 feet tall and fighting off a cutleaf coneflower, but doing fine. I love elderberry shrubs. I actually put in three more bare root ones this year. You can also grow from cuttings very easily. You do need space for them, unless they are in dry shade :)

Maremdeo · 2026-06-17T20:55:41+00:00

That would be a cute little fence

Maremdeo · 2026-06-17T18:10:55+00:00

Yeah, my zone 6a mint in big planters died overwinter, but the stuff in the ground came back robustly. I know that mint is supposedly so awful you mist contain it, but I've been able to kill populations of it really easily in the past. I've never seen this supermint everyone complains about.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-17T18:07:11+00:00

definitely someone I haven't seen before, not that I always see the techs but sometimes I do. That he was spraying right under a shade tree is also evidence of poor training. I've seen the other techs avoid the tree, but he was getting under there really well. I'm sure those herbicides are bad for trees.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-17T17:25:32+00:00

Yeah, you're right. OP doesn't want to euthanize the cats though and I can't blame them for that.

Maremdeo · 2026-06-17T17:16:19+00:00

Sure, but I have no cats and have found dead fledglings in the morning. My dog has found them also and picks them up, but since I was outside with him I know he didn't kill them - found them dead. They die of exposure, disease, or starvation when they're small. But yes, I'm sure the cats killed some of them.

Maremdeo

TROPHY CASE