Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

The revolution will be supervised.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

So many bastards, so little time.

Bark louder, little dog.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / What Kind of Monster Rips out the Trees in a Garden and Puts in a Fucking Sidewalk

What Kind of Monster Rips out the Trees in a Garden and Puts in a Fucking Sidewalk

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This whole fucking family is trash:

There is never a good excuse for cutting down a healthy tree. These are just garbage human beings. They probably tore them out because Trump could not plausibly state he can not lie.

Reader Interactions

209Comments

  2. 2.

    Raven

    Depends one the tree. We had a nasty Bradford pear that totally sux and we had it cut down this year.

  3. 3.

    trollhattan

    Somebody said those trees were planted by Jackie K. Thank god that nightmare is finally over. Camelot, my foot.

    ETA and you know damn well the pavement is to give somewhere new for Donny to shamble for his photo ops.

  4. 4.

    MazeDancer

    Word on Twitter is the garden, as it used to exist, was installed by Jackie Kennedy. Hard to believe. Horror inducing if true.

    Can’t believe they killed a tree.

    And spent the money. Must have gotten kickbacks.

  6. 6.

    trollhattan

    @MazeDancer:

    I can well believe “private” money was solicited for the job. And then the work was performed by federal employees while the raised funds disappeared into a blue wool pocket.

  7. 7.

    mmolleur

    Good news is that the trees “will be replanted elsewhere on the grounds” according to the AP. So it’s ugly but no trees were murdered.  As a gardener, I don’t understand why the vertical interest they added was removed.  They added color in spring, architectural interest in winter, shade in summer; it’s definitely sad.

  9. 9.

    bbleh

    It’s classic Fascist aesthetic. It’s all clean, straight lines, it displays the masonry clearly, and there’s nothing individual — even the planting is orderly lines of many of the same thing. I’m actually a little surprised they left the tree in the corner.

     

    (Adding, lol, what Wag said.)

  14. 14.

    Ron

    I am  sure it was done because he didn’t like that the TV cameras couldn’t get a good shot of him walking the corridor behind the pillars.

  15. 15.

    dexwood

    A few years ago, my father-in-law cut down a beautiful fruitless mulberry at the edge of his driveway because birds perching on it shit on his precious Buick. I was pretty disgusted with him at the time, told him what a shame it was to kill a mature tree like that which provided needed shade here in the high desert of New Mexico. Now he complains his car is too hot in the summer.

  19. 19.

    Barbara

    The before was more naturalistic, and it’s hard to see the after as it might have been planned, e.g., with roses growing taller.  However, I am guessing that the concrete path is intended to accommodate people with more limited mobility, who need walkers or wheelchairs.  So even though it doesn’t look as nice, I think it’s just normal to make those kinds of aesthetic concessions these days.  Not sure about the trees — roses don’t do well in shade so maybe they were getting too broad to be compatible.  It does look kind of like a boring commercial planting, but I might change my mind if I knew the identities of the flowers (e.g., natives, pollenators, etc.)

  21. 21.

    FlyingToaster

    You only cut down healthy trees if they become threatening:  danger of falling on a structure or powerlines; roots destroying the water supply pipes or storm or sanitary sewers.  It’s the job of the town arborist to work with the utilities to determine these problems.

    We had half-a-dozen trees removed from along a bike path specifically because their roots had breached the pipes below.

    I don’t believe that 50-year-old trees were “moved”.  Mostly because I suspect they couldn’t survive the transfer shock.

    I know there will be higher priorities, but this is one of those problems that is actually solvable the first year.  I hope the new First Lady does address it.

  22. 22.

    PsiFighter37

    Melania has awful fucking taste. Matches up with her nightmarish / garish Christmas decor as well.

    I hope that Biden has the whole fucking place fumigated once those white trash wannabes get kicked out.

  23. 23.

    Chetan Murthy

    I’m so old I remember when Sally Quinn berated the Clintons for shitting all over her precious town [which they had not].  Gee, I wonder when we’re going to get a Quinn column about these fucking usurpers …..

  24. 24.

    Barbara

    @bbleh: Well, in fairness, this kind of formal structure is pretty common for gardens in France and Italy.  English garden design tends to be more naturalistic.  It might have something to do with climate differences.  I actually like both, depending, and in this particular garden, it would have helped to break up the lawn with horizontal lines that also had plantings.

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    @FlyingToaster:

    Agree, and if you’re going to move a tree do it during the dormant season, not mid-fucking summer. Oh, wait, bet it rarely gets over 65 there.

  28. 28.

    JPL

    @PsiFighter37: OMG  Xmas must be a nightmare at their house.   Before jetting off someplace the family has to ooh and aah the White House decorations, and I can betcha they’ll not be dreaming about sugar plums.

  29. 29.

    Barbara

    @FlyingToaster: It’s kind of amazing the trees have lasted 50 years.  Ornamental fruit trees don’t tend to live that long.  We cut down an ornamental cherry this year, and although I know I will miss the blossoms, it was clearly distressed, and we basically have no lawn because it made it impossible to grow grass.  We were sad to take it down.

  31. 31.

    OGLiberal

    @Barbara: My wife did read that the walkways were for ADA compliance.  We both still liked the old version better and could have put the walkways in and still kept a lot of it.

  33. 33.

    Barbara

    @debbie: It’s for wheelchairs and walkers and crutches.  I am just amazed that I seem to be the only one who realizes that.

    @OGLiberal: Yes, they could have just put in a walkway.  If I had to guess, they wanted it to look different from what you see in a lot of other installations throughout the area.  This is a pretty common combo: flowering fruit trees plus spring bulbs.  I have seen some very inventive formal gardens and this is definitely not that. It’s boring, like the Christmas trees, I will grant you that.

  37. 37.

    Immanentize

    @MazeDancer:

    the garden, as it used to exist, was installed by Jackie Kennedy

    Catholics — especially Irish Catholics — are NOT going to like this.

  39. 39.

    mmolleur

    @trollhattan:

     

    @MazeDancer:   The garden was designed by Jackie’s friend “Bunny” Mellon.  There’s an article about the history and the reasons for the renovation in the Washington Post around the time it was announced.

  40. 40.

    mrmoshpotato

    @trollhattan:

    ETA and you know damn well the pavement is to give somewhere new for Donny to shamble for his photo ops. 

    Will the mango motherfucker tear gas himself before these photo ops?

  41. 41.

    Immanentize

    My dear friends, jackals, etc.

    I know many think it is clever, but I am asking — begging — you to please do not use  “Melanoma.”  Please.  It is a horrible disease and kills people we love.  It hurts my heart every time I see it.

    Thank you.

    Imm

  46. 46.

    dmsilev

    Look on the bright side. At least she didn’t reuse the Pan’s Labyrinth theme from one of the Christmas decoration setups a couple of years ago.

  47. 47.

    Sab

    @Barbara: The Christmas trees were boring and scary, which was actually an interestimg accomplishment. This garden is just bland. Also probably toasty hot in spring, summer and fall.

  51. 51.

    dr. bloor

    @Wag: My first thought when I saw the aerial shot was that there would be plenty of room for the Nazi banners all along the walk way.

  52. 52.

    bbleh

    @Barbara: Concur, but this goes beyond formal.  It’s severe.  It’s almost minimalist. A classic formal garden would have had more ornamentation — e.g., you say, cross-cutting lines, flower beds, ornamental trees — within a formal structure.

  53. 53.

    Barbara

    @Sab: The after is definitely boring.  I just don’t t think the before was that interesting either.  I keep thinking of the gardens I have seen in public spaces in European cities (mostly) and I don’t know whether they are trying to scrimp on maintenance or what have you, but it’s pretty dull.

  55. 55.

    Sab

    @Immanentize: My auto-correct used to do that before Steeplechase taught me how to disable it.

    Not saying they don’t mean to use it, but it may just be failure to proofread and edit.

    But I agree. Melanoma was my first tangle with pre-existing conditions nullify the insurance you paid for all those years. Easy to treat early, fatal if you don’t treat early, and your insurance just doesn’t want to be on the hook for any of it.

  56. 56.

    JPL

    Slow news day for trump.   It was reported that he had to pay Stormy Daniels law fees, and someone who attended his brother’s funeral broke the nose of a server at the Fig and Olive.   Is it possible that trump invited some mob guys to the funeral?    Mediaite has the Fig and Olive story up now.

  58. 58.

    Jay

    Must read story on the police coup unfolding in Portsmouth, VA.Police is charging a black Senator, city’s leading public defenders, & a local leader of the NAACP, with felonies linked to protests. And targeting the black prosecutor.It’s a long pattern. https://t.co/3pTi0sQ1pU— Taniel (@Taniel) August 22, 2020

  59. 59.

    sdhays

    @FlyingToaster: You only cut down healthy trees if they become threatening

    Well, clearly ol’ Donnie felt threatened. Those trees are probably Democrats, they have no problems drinking water, and they remember more than “Person, man, woman, camera, TV”.

  60. 60.

    FlyingToaster

    @trollhattan:

    Oh, wait, bet it rarely gets over 65 there.

    HAHAHAHAHAHA.  Unless “there” is Ellesmere Island, climate change has certainly ruined the old USDA growth charts.

    I’m in the process of losing 4 of my 6 tomatoes to sunburn.  This is supposed to be zone 6a; plant end-of-May/beginning-of-June and highs are in the 80s except for the old Boston MacWorld week (1st full week of August, might be Shark Week nowadays).  We always called it “Geeks sweltering in August”, because it was invariably the hottest week of the summer.  The garden has been been watered daily, but the tomatoes can’t fucking take the heat/sun.

  61. 61.

    Sab

    @Barbara: Agree with you on that. Nobody seems to have cared much since Jackie.

    Michelle Obama cared, but she was planting vegetable beds. I am fine with that priority. Thanks to her my whole neighborhood put in vegetable beds which have really served them well this year.

  62. 62.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Sab:

    It does seem to be a bit tasteless to redesign your house a couple of months before your lease is up. 

    Remember we’re talking about a family of walking trash heaps – Barron excluded, and possibly Tiffany.

  65. 65.

    Ken

    @mrmoshpotato: I’m sure when Trump loses, he’ll invite a Russian news crew into the Oval Office for another visit, and they’ll clean up anything they may have left lying around last time.

    Besides, isn’t he still using that unsecured phone?

  66. 66.

    WaterGirl

    @Sab: That is the entire point.  Well, that, and for photos that the dumpster will feel are presidential.

    I’m sure that is their intended statement with the re-do.  “We are not going anywhere.”

  68. 68.

    sdhays

    @Immanentize: I never liked that nickname and never use it, but I hadn’t thought of how it might actually be hurtful to others! We definitely should retire that.

    In my house, she’s the “Third Lady” because it just so perfectly encapsulates who she is and also refuses to cede the title of “First Lady” from Michelle Obama. Those two do not deserve to be considered as part of the same group of people.

  73. 73.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Barbara: But you don’t tear up a perfectly good English garden to install a French or Italian one.  And vice versa.  And you sure as fuck don’t do it in a house you don’t fucking own.

  74. 74.

    randy khan

    @OGLiberal:

    ADA compliance does not require ugly plain concrete.  You can be ADA compliant with stone, or slate or any one of many other materials, so long as the path is smooth enough and the slope is low enough.

  75. 75.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Someone sent me this about an hour ago (minus the Beschloss tweet — just the before and after pictures) and I honestly thought it was either a photoshop or that the two photos were reversed. Still having trouble wrapping my brain around this.

  76. 76.

    Barbara

    @Omnes Omnibus: I have outrage fatigue.  I just can’t get worked up about this.  The original garden wasn’t to my taste, nor is the current.  I would say that the use of the space is such that a formal garden probably makes more sense, but in the end I just don’t care.

  77. 77.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @OGLiberal: ADA compliance requires a reasonable accommodation.  The path under the colonnade was probably sufficient.  Don’t let them foist it off on the ADA.

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    But you don’t tear up a perfectly good English garden to install a French or Italian one.  And vice versa.  And you sure as fuck don’t do it in a house you don’t fucking own.

    Thank you.

  79. 79.

    WaterGirl

    Speaking of architecture, has anyone seen Suzanne?  I sent her email last week about something she wanted us to fundraise for, and haven’t heard back from her.

  80. 80.

    sdhays

    @PsiFighter37: I’m curious to see what she does this year – her last year in the White House. Will it be a cheerful pink pony theme because she’ll actually be so happy to be leaving? Will it be extra ominous and depressing because that’s the overall mood of the building? Or will she just phone it in because she “do[es]n’t really care. Do you?”?

    My money is on #3. Never underestimate a Trump’s capacity for laziness. Even this Rose Garden renovation just looks like she couldn’t be bothered.

  81. 81.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Y’all saw Martha McSally asking supporters to skip a meal to support her campaign?

    Anybody can give. I’m not ashamed. If you can give a dollar, five dollars, if you can fast a meal and give what that would be,” the Republican senator said

    I hope this becomes A Thing

    Sarah Rumpf @rumpfshaker
    No, @MarthaMcSally, I’m not skipping a meal, but not everyone is as fortunate as I am. Instead of donating to you, I gave $20.20 to @FeedingAmerica so other Americans don’t have to skip meals either.#FeedAmericaNotMcSally

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Those lovely cherry trees. I hope at least they were transplanted, because anything else is fucking vandalism.

  83. 83.

    sdhays

    @Barbara: but in the end I just don’t care

    I don’t think anyone in the (Very) White House cares. They just care about leaving their boot print. They really don’t care if it’s caked in shit.

  85. 85.

    Ken

    @sdhays: There seems to be a consensus that she’ll be divorcing Trump as soon as politically feasible, so she might not even be in the White House by December.

  86. 86.

    Mary G

    It’s hard to tell by a picture and I hope Suzanne will weigh in, but those walkways don’t look wide enough to be ADA compliant to this wheelchair user.

  87. 87.

    Gvg

    @debbie: well he is an American with disabilities. Flowering trees have a lifespan, and if Jackie put them in, they were probably dying. The Trumps have terrible taste though, but he has such terrible policies morally, that a garden is a whatever to me.

  88. 88.

    LuciaMia

    @bbleh: Probably ‘renovated’ for Donny’s acceptance speech this Thurs. Trees removed so we can see all the people he’s gonna cram into that colonnade. He’s gotta have that live applause!

  89. 89.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Barbara: Sometimes it is the little thing that are emblematic that elicit a strong response.  I joked about approving of Harris’s use of attorneys general during her speech, but I really felt a moment of relief that she had done it right.  I am not a garden person; I pretty much ignore the Sunday morning garden threads, but what they did here betrays an orc-like perverse desire to rip up and destroy living things out of spite.  I am sure the fact they were Jackie Kennedy’s was a motivating factor.

  90. 90.

    Van Buren

    @dexwood:  We have a white mulberry juuust on our side of the property line that our neighbors hate because it shades their pool. We declined their offer to pay for its removal because we love all the birds that feast on it.

  93. 93.

    sdhays

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I saw that on Twitter a little bit ago. My mouth literally dropped.

    I’ve said this before – I have a very low opinion of anyone with the (R) beside their name, but McSally has actually shocked me. Since she was, apparently, handpicked by McCain to succeed him, I truly thought she would be more in the McCain mold because she wouldn’t need to be Dump’s woman to win.

    But Dump has revealed her true character, and oh my is it ugly.

  97. 97.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ken: a recent biographer who was fairly sympathetic from what I saw of her on TV-– I’m not gonna give more time than that, or that linked story, to Melanie– she argued they don’t hate each, they’re allies, she’s the last person he calls before he goes on stage or TV, and the first person he calls after to see how things played, and she combs through media looking for things that flatter or will enrage him (Omarosa’s old job). But she also reported as fact that the delay in moving to DC from NYC wasn’t about Barron’s school, it was about renegotiating the pre-nup. I want to know the numbers.

  98. 98.

    joel hanes

    Not to defend this act of deliberate vandalism, but later accounts indicate that the mature crabapple trees were “relocated”, not cut down.

  101. 101.

    LuciaMia

    the willow being too close to the blog,  it’s roots have intwined with you brain and you’ve become one with the willow.

    And theres no Tom Bombadil to save you!

  102. 102.

    joel hanes

    @Immanentize:

    It is a horrible disease and kills people we love

    This is an accurate characterization of the Trump crime family, so the metaphor is on point.

    nevertheless, I will accede to your request.

  103. 103.

    pamelabrown53

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I agree that the fact the garden was Jackie K’s was a motivating factor. I think Trump has a perverse glee in destroying anything that democrats might hold dear. He can’t find time to actually be a president but there is nothing beneath his notice if it’s about hurt, destruction and division. Orc-like indeed.

  106. 106.

    sdhays

    @Ken: I don’t believe that. I don’t disbelieve it either. I just haven’t seen anything beyond speculation from people who don’t know the Third Lady any better than you or I do.

    But this was never a marriage built on love or respect, so I don’t really see what she gets out of bothering to divorce a man who has clear health and mental issues. Unless she fears the Feds and wants to extract her money from the criminal enterprise before it’s seized.

    Having such a large rat jump the bad ship Trump would be an awesome way to celebrate this Christmas!!

  107. 107.

    Barbara

    @Omnes Omnibus: Here is an article about it.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/melania-trumps-rose-garden-redo-draws-criticism-but-its-long-overdue/2020/07/28/05b81754-d0c4-11ea-8c55-61e7fa5e82ab_story.html

    For those who can’t stand links to subscription content:

    The renovation is said to restore Mellon’s original design, though there will be a couple of significant changes. One is the limestone path frame to the new lawn, which will be regraded to fix drainage issues. The other is the removal of the old crab apple trees. These were important elements; they brought verticality to the garden but also Mellon’s hallmark Francophilic blend of horticulture and formal design, so evident in her Oak Spring garden in Upperville, Va.

    The opposing ranks of five crab apple trees in the Rose Garden had been replaced over the years but struggled in large part because of a willow oak tree planted nearby during the Johnson administration. It is now 80 feet tall and casts deep shadows into the Rose Garden.

  110. 110.

    Calouste

    @Ken: I doubt the third lady cares about political viability, just about what’s in the prenuptial agreement.

  112. 112.

    Barbara

    @WaterGirl: Well, not new new, she has been there for a few months, but the house in Pittsburgh.  She talked about it in one of the comment threads earlier this week.

  113. 113.

    Sab

    OT: I do hate this timeline.

    My grand-daughter next door has all four of her half-siblings visiting, plus two of the half-siblings’ half- siblings, plus a cousin, plus a best friend from down the street. Ten happy kids screaming around having fun, who live in eight different households. Two of them are autistic, and can count on their siblings and friends here to be okay with them.

    They were desparate to get together again. Haven’t seen each other for months. One of them cried when saw the others.

    Ten kids from eight different households in two counties. What could go wrong? But they are just kids and family.

    The virus doesn’t care.

  114. 114.

    John Revolta

    @Barbara: struggled in large part because of a willow oak tree planted nearby during the Johnson administration. It is now 80 feet tall and casts deep shadows into the Rose Garden.

    AH HA!!!

  115. 115.

    Calouste

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That taps into some weird evangelical thing about fasting. It’s not about the money, it’s about fasting as a commitment to the cause or Jesus or to get enlightenment or something. My m-i-l went on about something like that at one point, but I never really listen to her so I can’t give you more details.

  118. 118.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus:  @Barbara:

    Sorry!  Two conversations going at once.  I assumed that was a response to my having commented that renovating the rose garden was Melanie’s way of saying “we’re not going anywhere”.  eta: And about how long Melania would stay with Trump.

    You were answering about Suzanne!  Yes, she did just move and no doubt has tons of projects.  They say you do more to your house the first year after you buy it than you do in the next 7 years combined.

    And that’s if you’re not an architect!

  124. 124.

    sdhays

    @Calouste: I don’t doubt you, but I don’t consider it “fasting” if you’re not eating because you can’t pay for the meal, and that’s the exact scenario she says in the quote. I call that “living in poverty”, and fucking rich appointed loser Senators running shitty campaigns shouldn’t be asking people to starve to prop up their collapsing campaigns.

    After she loses, I expect she’ll glob on to a grift like Steve Bannon did.

  125. 125.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Calouste: McKay Coppins, who I think is LDS himself, seems to see it as either a dog-whistle, or a huge blunder in pursuit of a dog-whistle, to Mormons. I’m not clear on which way he’s arguing

    McKay Coppins @mckaycoppins ·16h
    Mormons are encouraged to do this every month, except they donate the money to people in need instead of, um, political candidates in need.

    Seems likely that McSally, who has a lot of Mormon constituents, is appealing to/co-opting that practice

    I think it’s pretty gross.

  127. 127.

    sdhays

    @Immanentize: I think Betty’s post was also the first time I saw it. It’s just sooooo perfect!

    But that’s Betty – she’s really good at turning a phrase! Or at least popularizing it if she didn’t invent it outright.

  128. 128.

    Sab

    @pamelabrown53: Pamelabrown. Normally I do agree with you, but I can count on Barbara to comment critically on me when I am being a jerk. I would hate to discourage her from that.

  132. 132.

    Sab

    @Immanentize: Actually I won over a RW not NJ years ago. He hated Hillary but he loved his own wife and young daughter. I asked him if he thought Chelsea had turned out okay. He agreed she was admirable although misguided on policy. So I asked if she would have been better if her mother had had a contentious divorce. He had to agree that not.

  134. 134.

    Barbara

    @Immanentize: Basically, the Rose Garden has been used for large gatherings at least for quite a while.  This garden — and the one before — are like a large living room where all the furniture is shoved up against the wall so someone can host a large gathering.  It’s a garden, except that, other things take too much precedence over what would actually make it nice as a garden.

    Apparently, the grass has to be resodded every year, partly because of use and partly because of drainage issues. They are hoping not to have to do that, but I bet nothing improves. The crab apple trees were not original (I wondered — a 50 year old ornamental fruit tree is unusual) and most of the rose bushes have died because, duh, roses don’t like shade.

  135. 135.

    Immanentize

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Tithing (not fasting and send money) is a big Mormon and Christian thing.

    The idea was for all to give to the Church which would +- ahem — redistribute it to the most needy and worthy. After a little pass through for administrative costs, of course.

    Romney — to his credit — was serious about tithing.

  136. 136.

    Calouste

    @sdhays: McSally is not appealing to people who can’t afford a meal, the fasting is about making a religious connection to the donation. See also Jim’s post just below yours.

  137. 137.

    FelonyGovt

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: A friend of a friend who lives in a nice neighborhood in Maryland reports that Melania actually lives there with her parents and Barron, and is brought into DC for appearances as necessary. She knows because of the frequent Secret Service related disruptions.

  138. 138.

    Sab

    @Calouste: My RWNJ brother thinks she married him for power. I kid you not. Left her fancy well-connected position in DC to follow a guy who aspires to be (har har) governor of Arkansas.

    White male privilege has blinders.

  139. 139.

    Immanentize

    @Barbara: I thought the same about the flowering trees — rare to be 50, especially in the horrible weather of DC.  I know it is mostly a ceremonial space, but some verticality would be nice.

    Of course, I will never have the chance to live where I might have the whole garden I would like, but I do love me some espalier.

  141. 141.

    Ruckus

    Just got back to the site and of course haven’t read all the comments, that would be insane!

    I’ve developed a rational for dealing with whatever shitforbrains says or does or what anyone in his circle of hell says or does. And that is that he is a simpleton who is racist as possible for any human. And because of that he really wants only to destroy anything that even might help one person of color in any way and/or might allow him to grift a quarter. (He’s only worth 1/4 of what any other human life is worth.)

    But I’d bet the reason for changing the garden was that the roses were colored, and white is the only good color. Never forget that shitforbrains is as racist as anyone on the planet.

  142. 142.

    Sab

    @WaterGirl: My feeling exactly. We just wave at them over the fence and hope everyone survives.

    No hugging grandchild from us. We are monsters. Zoom us if you want to see us.

  143. 143.

    Barbara

    @Immanentize: Yes, agreed, verticality would be nice.  In my little pollinator garden, I have cardinalis growing and they get to be four or five feet tall, but there are other things that would break up the monotony of the shorter flowers without creating shade.

  144. 144.

    sdhays

    @Calouste: Like I said, I don’t doubt you. It doesn’t really make it any less offensive, particularly since whatever she was intending to appeal to, she plainly said that people who were choosing between funding her campaign and eating a meal should choose to fund her shitty flailing campaign.

  145. 145.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Immanentize:

    There seems to be a consensus that she’ll be divorcing Trump as soon as politically feasible

    People said the same thing about Hillary.

    I wouldn’t blame Hillary for divorcing Trump.

  146. 146.

    Omnes Omnibus

    In a different context, I heard someone say recently that you never really own a classic car (in this case, a Ferrari 250 SWB), you are just the caretaker for a while.  So repainting it in a period correct color or adding period side mirrors may be okay, but adding hydraulic lifts or converting it into a hearse (pace Harold and Maude) is not.  I feel similarly about this.

  148. 148.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @FlyingToaster: Wow.  My experience is tomatoes love sun and heat; that is always the silver lining to heatwaves around here – the tomatoes like it while everything else is panting for shade, since they originated in Central and South America. I’m sorry your plants are having such a hard time.

  149. 149.

    Shana

    @Raven: Bradford pears were put in all over here in NoVA 20 or so years ago. They grow really fast and are therefore very weak. Every time we’d get a big heavy windy storm you’d drive down streets and see half of every Bradford pear broken off. Trash trees.

  150. 150.

    Sab

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): I used to grow cocktail tomatoes in a tub in Las Vegas. Had to wheel them into the airconditioning at night so the blossoms would set.

    In Ohio they are almost weeds. My mother had a great crop of tomatoes one year when my toddler sister abandoned half her BLT sandwhich in the rose garden. The T parts of the sandwich sprouted and produced excellent tomatoes.

  151. 151.

    Gretchen

    I hired a landscape designer last spring.  He said if he couldn’t get it in by July 1 he would wait until next spring.  Of course you would never plant in the hot summer, and he has found that about 1/3 of fall-planted perennials don’t make it.  What do you bet she hired some grifter friend to do this rather than someone who knew what they were doing?

  152. 152.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @FlyingToaster: I’d add a fourth reason, if the tree creates a nuisance.

    Case in point, when I bought my house there was a cherry tree right next to the patio. During fruit season I was constantly having to clean up the mess it left, and couldn’t really use that side of the patio lest one be pelted with dropping fruit. Plus, I couldn’t even eat the cherries because the damn squirrels would keep taking a single bite out of each of them

    I did replace with a different tree.

  154. 154.

    FlyingToaster

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): The varietals we planted, specifically the sauce tomatoes (San Marzano II and Roman Striped) expect a humid, cloud-n-sun weather pattern.  Instead we got weeks of 90°+ and clear skies and low humidity.

    The slicing tomatoes are only a little sunburned.  They’ll be producing right up to first frost.  The cherry tomatoes out back in the pots are shaded half the day, and are going gangbusters.

    And the tomatillos are going to be big.

    Next year, I’m going to plant the sauce varietals at the other end of the garden, where they’re shaded in the morning.   Basically flip them into the current tomatillo spaces.  We’ll see what happens.

  155. 155.

    prostratedragon

    @FlyingToaster:
    Several years ago a 250 year old, 65 feet tall, 700,000 lb. bur oak was moved about 40 yards to a new location at UMichigan Business School. A petition drive saved it from the axe, and the move became a big show during football season. When I last saw it almost 3 years later it was still doing well.

    Story
    Video

  156. 156.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Sab: I’m always surprised by plants, what grows and what doesn’t.  We humans plant what we like, and then the plants grow if they can.  When they are in the right place, yes, even the “fussiest” plants grow like weeds. When I was in college in the 70s, houseplants had a moment, and I tried growing maidenhair ferns because they are so beautiful and lacy.  No luck, even with misting them – it was just too dry indoors.  Then when I moved to Mendocino County, we have maidenhair fern growing wild on the north face of an oak/fir forest (along with fabulous shade wildflowers like fawn lilies).  They all dry up in the summer and then miraculously reappear in the winter after the rains.

    On the other hand, years ago when I first moved here, I brought a cyclamen I had hanging outside, and it just up and died, no matter how much I watered it.  The air was just too damn dry and hot, even in the shade.  My first lesson that not everything blooms where it is planted.

    I do admire plants which self-seed, even though they can be inconvenient.  I have a culinary sage plant that took over the pot next to it as well as its own, happily sharing with a culinary thyme plant the bees and insects love, even though the flowers seem too small to me to be that compelling.  Obviously I know nothing.

  157. 157.

    FlyingToaster

    @Sister Golden Bear:  Nuisance _is_ a good reason.  I tend to put up with the fruiting (non-edible) things on either side of my driveway because the powerwasher attachment is fine for scouring guano off the cars.  I want to destroy the volunteer black locusts (fucking invasive species)that has grown up out by the street.

  159. 159.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @FlyingToaster: I especially love cherry tomatoes because they are so dependable on getting ripe!

    I have been getting into gardening much more now that I am retired, and for the first time am having the experience of really noticing how much sun, shade, etc, different plants like. I have some canna lilies which do well in mostly sun, and calla lilies (which I thought in my innocence were practically the same thing – the leaves are similiar and how much difference is there between two Ls and two Ns) which prostrate themselves with much less sun exposure, but do fine in shade. So next year my big tub of callas will be moved, to their great relief I’m sure.

  161. 161.

    dww44

    I am such a tree person, that I will likely get reincarnated as one in the next life.  I actually hurt when trees are removed for almost any reason.  I really hate it when the Asplundh trucks spend a lot of time in these parts cutting limbs off beautiful trees to keep them off power lines.  Particularly the cherry trees which line many of the streets around here.  I love my power almost as much as anyone, but why hasn’t someone figured out a way to provide  it without ugly power poles and lines everywhere?

    @SiubhanDuinne: Ha! Thank you for that.

  163. 163.

    Jay

    Since the ‘40’s, most of the ornamental fruit trees and fruit trees, are spliced cuttings grown on fast growing rootstock.

    For the orchardist, the tree grows faster, is saleable earlier,

    For the homeowner/landscaper, the tree “fills in” faster. No waiting 10 years for fruits or blooms.

    The drawback is that the rootstock, often aspen, alder and other “colonizing” trees, is not long lived and is prone to rot.

    An apple tree on an apple rootstock, can easily live and prosper for hundreds of years.

    An apple tree on alder root stock will fruit 5 years earlier, will mass fruit 10 years earlier but will be barely firewood at age 25.

  164. 164.

    Aleta

    We’re supposed to believe that a well-used part of the grounds of a federal building was not already ADA compliant and accessible?    That the Clintons, Bushes and Obamas didn’t care to accommodate people with walkers and wheelchairs and make them as comfortable as possible?   (Where visitors and dignitaries arrive all through the year?   Where equipment is moved in and set-up ?)   We’re supposed to believe this explanation from a group proven to be manipulative liars?

  165. 165.

    WereBear

    And I will never understand people who recoil from color. Granted, my appreciation is on a musical theater level, but a passion for beige has always baffled me.

  166. 166.

    randy khan

    @sdhays:

    The Christmas themes are decided on way in advance, so they’re probably already baked in.  I’m thinking Prussian eagle ornaments, for that homey touch.

  168. 168.

    Johnny's mom

    Part of the ongoing behavior pattern; people liked Kennedy and adored Jackie. Ergo, it HAD TO GO.

  169. 169.

    Jess

    That’s it. I was trying to decide whether to vote for trump again–he’s not perfect, but I don’t want the country to be taken over by Commies–but chopping down trees? I can’t even. I’ll hold my nose and vote for Biden.

  173. 173.

    dr. luba

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    But she also reported as fact that the delay in moving to DC from NYC wasn’t about Barron’s school, it was about renegotiating the pre-nup. I want to know the numbers.

    And just how much did that renegotiation cost the American taxpayer?

  174. 174.

    Aleta

    @Jay:   May not be accurate to compare specimen trees at the WH, where plants are chosen for symbolic value related to US regions or historical periods or people, to trees designed for heavy fruit production or the yards of non-experts.    I’ve been to many gardens known for their old flowering trees that are antique species, carefully tended and preserved.   Where they are considered more prized the more they age.

  176. 176.

    J R in WV

    @WaterGirl:

     

    @Barbara: I don’t understand that comment.  What new house?

    Suzanne recently moved from Phoenix AZ to Pittsburgh, PA.

    So perhaps she didn’t take the AZ house to PA, and is working to make a new house more comfortable for her large family.

  177. 177.

    Jay

    @Aleta:

    it was not about the White House, it was about people complaining about short lived ornamental fruit trees and fruit trees that are falling over.

     

    my second house had a badly neglected, 80 year old Golden Transparent, that was going gangbusters with just two years of proper care and feeding. The best pie apples ever.

    the UBC Apple Project tracked the rootstock/ specimen down to India.

  178. 178.

    prostratedragon

    @trollhattan:  Nice story. Maybe the move of the Tappan Bur Oak, we could call it, benefitted from lessons learned with the Turner Oak. The move was like a controlled version of what the arborist at Kew described.

  181. 181.

    cain

    It’s a full melee in portland today as alt-right assholes take to the streets and are attacking everyone around them..

    https://twitter.com/erynCA/status/1297272929386819590

    It’s especially rich to see a guy with a shield with “God Bless America” and bashing people all around him. More on that thread.

    Of course the police are no where to be seen.. the same cops who will call a riot for  thrown water bottle, but waits as alt-righters – armed to the teeth with guns and weapons assault people around them – destroying private property and pepper spraying with wild abandon.

    Few hours go by, and the police merely threaten to call a riot – but they really are enjoying watching the protesters get it from the alt-right. It must feel cathartic for them

  182. 182.

    mad citizen

    Burying power lines happens in new developments but is/would be cost prohibitive for existing lines.  Lots more to this subject; such as are we talking distribution or transmission lines, etc.  Am in the industry and have never heard the “utilities were paid to bury but kept the money instead” story.  It’s state regulation mostly; can’t imagine any regulator would let that happen.

     

    As a Hoosier, I’m intrigued by the limestone sidewalks.   Even the towns in the limestone belt don’t use limestone this way.  Wonder where they sourced this from?  I love the big slate walkways at the Charleston waterfront.

  183. 183.

    James E Powell

    @WereBear:

    Granted, my appreciation is on a musical theater level, but a passion for beige has always baffled me.

    I always thought beige revealed an absence of passion.

  184. 184.

    cckids

    @Johnny’s mom:

    Part of the ongoing behavior pattern; people liked Kennedy and adored Jackie. Ergo, it HAD TO GO.

    Actually, an ongoing RW trope is that the Third Lady is “the classiest FL since Jackie Kennedy”. So, re-doing one of Jackie’s signature imprints on the White House would bring accolades.

    And FWIW, I don’t believe for a second that Melania had any sort of involvement in the conception, planning, or execution of this garden. She very clearly wants nothing to do with the White House, or any part of the role.

  185. 185.

    Aleta

    @Jay:  I actually figured we’re on the same page about trees and responding to the belief  that trees are disposable products that will die soon anyway.

    The administration’s claim that they’ve moved the crabs indicates they know to acknowledge they had value.  But moving them in the summer indicates they actually don’t care.   It could also be they’re being kept in a holding area until the fall.

    Remember Nashville’s riverfront cherry trees?  Many were going to be cut to make room for the announcement of NFL draft  picks?   Later they promised  to remove fewer of them, and they promised to relocate some of the  old ones instead of cut them down.  And then (I think the promoters promised)  to also donate and plant a billion new trees….   Perhaps some trees were relocated, but it takes years to know  if  that was successful.   In the last year I remember one mention of one tree that’s  doing OK, and another mention that many trees  (I presume the new ones)  are still being stored waiting for a good time to plant them (due to storms).

    I guess the other point is that moving trees is always a risk.  It takes years  to know if they’re going to make it.   If  in a couple of years they’re holding on but not thriving, landscapers don’t consider them worth the space and they’re cut down in the end anyway.

  186. 186.

    Jay

    @Aleta:

    I had a tree spade for the Skidsteer, and replanted hundreds of trees to reshade the meadows. Aside from doing it in the right time of year, a key trick is to replant them in the same orientation they had been growing in. Plant them with the north side facing south, and they die.

    Just touching a tree, makes me happy, and there is absolutely nothing like listening to a forest, except maybe listening to a river.

  187. 187.

    Scuffletuffle

    @PsiFighter37: Dude, I am officially white trash, grew up in a blue collar family in a trailer in a trailer park…and associating that fucking family with me and mine is an insult worth fighting over. Consider yourself slapped with a fucking glove…

  189. 189.

    unknown known

    @Calouste: If she’s in it for the money, then depending on the prenup, her best bet might be to hang in till he pops his clogs. That ain’t gonna be forever, he’s not exactly in tip top shape.

    OTOH, if the Feds clean him out while he’s in prison, maybe better grabbing your slice now. So it’s a gamble really :)

  194. 194.

    Bex

    @Sab: That’s what she said when she met the pope in her Morticia outfit.  Would you believe anything any of them said?

  196. 196.

    Etv13

    I am no fan of Melania Trump, but people really ought to read the WaPo article before commenting on the basis of a single picture.  For those who can’t access the article, the pre-existing Rose Garden had serious issues, including drainage and shade, the crab apples were not fifty years old but were struggling largely due to the shade cast by a large willow oak, the old box hedges were infected with a blight, and there were only about a dozen rose bushes left.  There were paths (that probably were ADA compliant) but they had drainage issues, as did the lawn.  The new garden features more than two hundred rose bushes, in various pastel shades.  You can see them if you watch the video embedded in the article.

  197. 197.

    Quaker in a Basement

    I got a shiny Susan B. Anthony dollar that says it’s because she sank into the turf in her heels.

  198. 198.

    Dave Lanadau

    Take a look, this is serious.     Since the U.S. Covid Deaths chart turned upward 6 weeks ago, Trump has caused 14,000+ unnecessary deaths; not 175,000, but 14,000 – the ones HE ACTUALLY CAUSED by his inconsistant comments – still a ludicrous amount.  This number, which could be tracked and published daily, increasing each day, could be called the TRUMP INCREMENT.

    As it is, History will treat Trump severely and record that he is the only American president, THE ONLY ONE, to cause tens of thousands of deaths in his own country.  Do some real good; get these truths out there to the redneck public.

  200. 200.

    Suzanne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    ADA compliance requires a reasonable accommodation.  The path under the colonnade was probably sufficient.  Don’t let them foist it off on the ADA. 

    The ADAAG specifies slope, smoothness at transitions, width, turning radii, and detectable warnings. It is much more specific than the text of the ADA.

  201. 201.

    Suzanne

    @WaterGirl: I didn’t see your email! Sorry, I will go check! ETA: Have no email from you….

    To answer the question about the width of the sidewalk…. it’s hard to tell in that photo. I bet they took it with a goofy lens.

  202. 202.

    ballerat

    @FlyingToaster:

    I don’t believe that 50-year-old trees were “moved”.  Mostly because I suspect they couldn’t survive the transfer shock.

    I don’t either. Especially in August. Mature trees are not like furniture.

    I read Jackie Kennedy planted them. Melania’s like Donald in that she also is envious and insecure and has a compulsion to obliterate the accomplishments of a far classier person.

  203. 203.

    ballerat

    @mmolleur:

    the trees “will be replanted elsewhere on the grounds

    My ass they will.

    This is the equivalent of “we’ll have it in two weeks”. It’s a delaying and deflecting tactic. No one in the media will follow  up on this. No one’s bothered to ask about that health plan Donnie promised “in two weeks” and that was something of far greater import.

  204. 204.

    Xenos

    I hate the new design, but a rose garden should be about the roses.  If those were roses under shade trees, the old design made no sense, either.  From what I could tell from the old design those were tulips under flowering trees in the spring – nice (although possibly nice for only 2 months of the year), but not any sort of rose garden,

  205. 205.

    rikyrah

    Cole,

    Did you see her Christmas decorations?
    Always a nightmare.
    So, this drab, tasteless bullshyt does not shock.
    Just angers me ?

  208. 208.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @unknown known: if the Feds clean him out while he is in prisons n OR if everyone he stiffed takes him to court and sues  for damages the legal fees may clean him out.  But she may get nothing much if the pre nup is all in his favor. What to do what to do?!

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