Help me not dig a new patio for my DP

[Errolwasahero]

Help! ‘Lovely’ DP has cleared some of the path in our horrendously overgrown garden, except he’s cut back all my Japanese anemones while he was at it 🤬

will they just grow back next year or do I need to do something to rescue them?

as for how I ‘have a word’ with him, well I think I might wait until I’ve had a little drink later… (to chill me out a bit!)

As long as hes not taken them back to ground level they should grow back next year, just no flowers this year.

DH once did similar in our garden. Cut back heavily on all the ivy growing up the fence, and carried on cutting back, butchering my big and beautiful camellia at the same time.

He is not allowed out there armed with anything other than a lawnmower any more.

Give them some TLC. Plenty of water, a bit of liquid feed, they will come again ( might even flower although late). They are renowned for being survivors once established.

DH ( aka the Fork of Doom) and I have regular walks around the garden during which plants are allocated and identified as friend 😍or foe😡, especially before a big hack and slash, sorry weeding , is planned.

I hate when that happens. DH does that too!

Thank you! They’re left with about 6 inches; will water and feed and hftb…

we have had The Chat; I impressed myself with my restraint 😇. We both struggle to keep on top of the jungle our beautiful garden. It’s a haven for wildlife, at least!

good to know he’s not alone, I think 🤨

My husband buried my ice plants this year. He had 'extra soil' I've told him not to dump soil where I've planted stuff now.

Glad they are likely to be OK.

DH has not been allowed to touch anything in our garden for years, due to his scorched earth style of gardening.

Lime in a bath would be easier than digging the patio..........

Lol at Fork of Doom. It tends to be the Strimmer of Doom here.

I think as long as the roots are OK they will recover with food and water. Plants are designed to be trampled by animals or eaten by water buffalo or cows (not that I am comparing your DH to a water buffalo).

Japanese anenomes are akin to giant buttercups - I have never managed to eradicate them from anywhere I’ve lived. They’ve just popped up here having travelled beneath a brick wall from NDN.

I can guarantee they’ll be back.

Hah, it's ds2 here. Every time I see him on the mower or with a strimmer I stop him and point out all the things he must absolutely not under any circumstances go anywhere near, on pain of death (or worse, no dinner).

He regularly tells me that I love my plants more than I love him (I usually answer 'no contest!').

No advice, but sympathies. DH and I now have our own areas so he can tend to plants using his supposedly well-researched methods on his bit (the PP's description of 'scorched earth policy' sounds familiar...), and I can live without fear of finding nutured favourites on the compost heap. His methods include activities such as ripping everything out of the veg beds as soon as 1st Sept comes around because "it's the end of the season and it's got to go, so I might as well do it now as I have time"... But it still has a good 4 weeks growing time before it gets too wet and cold... 😩

Is this not the Chelsea chop method of gardening? I'm glad there is a good amount left and I hope you get a glorious display later on this year.

I remember a post from a woman a few years ago where her dh had 'pruned' one of her beloved shrubs, pretty much scalped it. I wonder how her plants are doing now?

Chelsea chop only works on some plants, and is usually not nearly that short.

Lolling at lime in a bath, @Marblessolveeverything ; and Fork of Doom.

I just can’t understand how people can get it wrong; there is even a row of rocks to show where the bed is!

I think they get a bit mad on the power of cutting things down, maybe it goes back to when they had to clear the jungle to catch the dinner!

I asked DH to clip off the dead flowers on heathers with shears. Just managed to stop him from cutting off the top of a dwarf conifer.

I think your anemones will be fine and regrow this season but your DP doesn't have a trained eye so it all looks the same to him. Never assume he has knowledge, supervise closely and give precise instructions.

It's when reading threads like this I'm eternally grateful that DH has no inclination to garden whatsoever!

Nor mine. When I asked him to dispose of the contents of the hanging baskets, he threw away the contents of every container as well, including something I had been nurturing for a couple of seasons. Not safe to be allowed out there unaccompanied.

I always do the ‘Chelsea chop’ in May every year on my anemones They will flower this year and be even stronger

@TheOtherHotstepper ah, the 'being helpful' bit! Yes I've had to be very clear about my 'nursery' as it does look a mess and yes there are half-dead things in it, but he now knows they're like my children and to talk to me before he does stuff.

@Jellybean23 yeah his eye seems to have a blank about plants! Funnily enough it's highly tuned in to engineering/car details. I don't understand why he can't tell a geranium leaf from a buttercup, but heyho, we can't all be perfect, can we?!

My husband cuts the grass and helps when I tell him. On pain of death does he touch anything else. He is very good at find and getting rid of aphids. And brings ladybirds home when he comes home from work.

Dh hasn't touched anything for years without precise instructions after An Incident with a v handsome Virginia creeper.

Mine has bought a usb hedge trimmer in Aldi. I’m living in fear.

DH can barely step outside because of his hay fever, but earlier this year he offered to help me chop off a branch of a magnolia. I had spent six months working out exactly which bits to chop off. I pointed at the fork of the branch that needed chopping off, touching the correct one and saying ‘please cut this one off exactly here’. I offered to tie a bit of string round where I wanted it cut, indicating where the string would go. I stood at the bottom of the step ladder and he picked up the saw and he CUT STRAIGHT IN TO THE WRONG BLOODY BIT! And when I remonstrated he claimed that was the one I told him to cut.

He was lucky he was the one holding the saw.