Vintmer

Well, for the 4th week in a row, the garbage men have thrown the barrels onto my Basjoo and snapping it, I've tried asking them to be careful, placed stakes around the plant. The first time it was 18" now it just gets one leaf open. I'm hoping it comes back one more time, next week I'll meet them with a side arm

Sailfish

can you move the cans to the other side of your front lawn?
Firearms would be a tad drastic at this point

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Vintmer

I've got 5 spaced across the front yard, I put the barrels between 2, about 5' from the plants, but they keep throwing the barrels and bins toward hat corner of the yard

Sailfish

use hollow points

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Bananaman88

Don,

I feel your pain, buddy! I used to have the exact same problem when I lived in the St. Louis area. Just as all my nice daylilies and achilleas would be blooming nice the garbage men would just toss the can into the bed, smashing everything in sight. It was almost like they were doing it on purpose. Luckily, all of my bananas I grew back then were safely in pots and nowhere near the road where they could be smashed. I'd suggest calling the company if you've spoken to the men directly and are getting the same behavior. Try to speak with their supervisor. Good luck!

Lagniappe

I gave my garbage men a bag of chips and a coke and told them what a good job they do . I then went on to explain how I feel about my plants . I've had no problem since .
Now , if I could get the paper guys to stop throwing the 'free papers' in my lawn which melt in the sprinkler ......

Kylie2x

Man that sucks!!!!!
Being nice is probably the way to go..(Hollow Points..LOL) No telling what would happen if you made them mad...I just wish they had trash pick-up...out here...LOL
Kylie:

Steve in France

I'm with Pete on this one , a bit of kindness with the Garbage guys goes a long way. In France we gave them twenty Euros before Christmas every year , a lot of the people in the Village did the same thing. Like most manual labours the Garbage guys get little respect , showing you value there service makes a big difference to the way they work. If I have a load of stuff here I often go out and help them put it on the truck , I always say hi if I'm out when they come by. So make sure they remember your house as a special place and they will be Cool with you.
They maybe covered in dirt and smell but it's honest dirt from the Job.
I used to skin Mink in Canada when I was young , I'd walk into the Bank to cash my cheque covered in blood and stink from skinning 500 Mink that day, it was honest dirt and I sure earned the money , if I could have showered and changed my cloths I would have but I could not . No one ever bugged me about the way I looked and smelled but then again in those days I was a six foot guy with a 44 inch chest and a 32 inch waist :-) , I think the numbers have reversed these days lol
later
Steve

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john_ny

Sorry to hear about the basjoo. I hope the lasiocarpas fared better.
I have a basjoo, close to the sidewalk, but it's at the opposite end of the property, from where I put out my garbage, and it is about 10 feet tall. So far it's been unscathed. I did have a similar, but not identical, problem a couple of years ago. Our garbage is picked up by the city sanitation department. I place the trash at the curb, and I have a line of arborvitaes up against the sidewalk. The problem, here, is that they can never seem to be able to stand the empty cans up. They throw them on their sides, in the street, and they roll and blow around all over, and the covers get run over. I handled a couple of cans a week, and I always managed to get them standing right side up; these guys handle hundreds every day, and they can't do it. I had three cans stolen, and I decided it was enough. Now I keep the cans close to the house and, on collection day, I carry the bags to the curb. No more cans to get stolen/hit by cars.

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John

bananimal

If y'all think having the garbageguys breakup the plants tossing the cans again and again is incredulous - how about the lawn maintenance guys walking over from the house next door and taking your vegtables and ripe bananas for lunch!!!

Jump over to the Gardenweb forum. The thread is titled "Caught them lemon-handed". It's a long thread but worth the read. It's all there; rage & fear, threats & pleading, weaponry and olive branches........

Most importantly, everybody should think how they should handle a similar situation themselves if theft should hit them right at home.

B-mal

Fcastro

I caught my neighbors psycho 6 year old girl going through my yard and snapping branches on my plants on the way to go play with the neighbors kids next door. The second time I went and had a talk with her parents, banned her from crossing through my yard and lined the perimeter with claymore mines and razor wire, or maybe it was just rabbit traps.....at any rate,the psychotic little heathen is now confined to her own yard ,there are no sidewalks out here and she can't walk through the road. The kid is 6 and I know she'll be in reform school before age 8.

bananimal

I personally think claymores are the best. Unfortunately, when faced outward from your AO, your house, the backblast is not good. Just keep an eye out for avaricious lawn care people; they could lift your naners and such. Did you check out that thread on gardenweb?

B-mal

pitangadiego

Take pictures in case you need to get serious with the trash company.

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Vintmer

Surprisingly, its coming back again, I going to dig it up and let it spend winter inside. Since the town just contracted this company about two months ago, and all the guys are new, I'll give them one more chance before a set-up the minefield.

AnnaJW

At a former house I lived in - quite a few years ago - I tried asking "please stay out of my yard". Then "GET OFF OF MY PROPERTY". , etc.
Then put up a fence, and planted any thorny shrubs and plants I could find. Loved it the day I heard a voice yelling "OUCH! Go back!"

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-Anna Banana -

Living my life in MMORPG's

MediaHound

Our town has replaced the old trucks with new modified front end loaders so that one person does the entire route and never has to touch the cans, it's all done by machine.
They gave out new special garbage cans that are picked up by a claw on the truck, dumped into a dumpster that hangs off the front of the truck, and every so often the operator lifts the dumpster and empties it over the top of the truck where it's an open bed.
You don't see the claw on the front in these images, these trucks don't have it, but basically it's a claw that grabs the can and dumps the can into the dumpster. Then the dumpster, when full, is emptied over the top.

http://www.tigerdude.com/garbage/frontload/index.html


It's much more efficient and nobody damages your lawn, the claw drops the can back where it picked it up.
It might be spinning your wheels, but try and press your communities to invest in some new, more efficient method.

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Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

bananimal

When I lived in Charlotte, NC the trucks had a side grab system. A pair of pincers/mandibles was lowered to wrap around approx 55 gal roll out cans that were provided by the service. They were lidded. Grab, lift and dump - can placed back upright. No plant damage, no can damage. May squish a squirrel now and then.

It worked well cause it gets really tight in cul-de-sacs. In a really tight radius the driver gets out and pushes the can nearer the truck. He then pulls both adjacent neighbor cans for access at the same time. On straight runs it is the fastest, most efficient system ever. The front loader would not handle tight spaces well - too much repositiioning the truck. Also a dumpster looking can would not be popular with the little old lady brigades.

I would love to see a system like the one in Charlotte. The bigger can also means a cost savings of doing only one pick up a week. Also only one worker is needed, the driver. You can really fit alot of stuff in those big cans. I remember seeing those big cans in Ft Lauderdale a few years ago. Anyone else see them in action?

Taylor

Bananimal,
We have that system here. its nice. They used to frequently drop them back on accident instead of putting them back where they got it, but that problem is no longer. Whats bad is that we have the cans on our side of the road, and we are on the inside of a corner, so of course on Recycling Can AND Trash day, we have 10+ cans in just our yard.

Not pleasant when you are trying to cut your grass on trash day, having to move them all.

Taylor

Fcastro

+ We have the side pincher trucks as well here,however, for some weird reason ,about a year ago they started having 2 guys empty the cans into the trucks anyway. There is some kind of roller back there that they feed the can to and it empties it. I guess the side-arm thing was too efficient,the company couldn't gouge us for enough that way.......