Busch Gardens Williamsburg Social Media
- Thread starter GoHokies87
- Start date
Anyone check out the finalists for the landscaping giveaway? There was a complaint that many of the finalists had small yards they could easily take care of themselves.
Looking at the finalists, many of their existing yards do not look super terrible and could probably fixed up easily. In fact, I wish I had some of those yards over mine. With that said, landscaping ins't cheap. To do it yourself requires you to be healthy and for you to be able to do hard labor. Some of these people do have disabilities or legitimate reason for not being able to do the work required, and to pay a company to come in and do the work costs a lot.
I do think the person in second place right now does not deserve the prize as much as some of the others.
Looking at the finalists, many of their existing yards do not look super terrible and could probably fixed up easily. In fact, I wish I had some of those yards over mine. With that said, landscaping ins't cheap. To do it yourself requires you to be healthy and for you to be able to do hard labor. Some of these people do have disabilities or legitimate reason for not being able to do the work required, and to pay a company to come in and do the work costs a lot.
I do think the person in second place right now does not deserve the prize as much as some of the others.
I would love for Busch Gardens to come out and landscape my yard- who wouldn't. Like you, I would prefer the prize to go to someone who wouldn't normally have the money or ability to do it themselves.
However, that is not how our world works. To quote Princess Bride: "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something."
I am sure the family who is in second is a good family and applied because they really wanted the yard to be beautiful. If you watch any of those House Crasher shows... no one is in any real money problems... they just don't have the time or knowledge on how to do it.
Landscaping seems easy enough- but you have to know soil- what plants handle what light- soil- drought-how big they get- etc. Then there is color composition and so forth. We built a retaining wall in our back yard. One block was about $2.00 at home depot. We are doing OK financially, but build three tiers of a 15 foot long wall at 2 ft high with stone bricks.. yeah it adds up.
We saved money by hauling it all- digging the ground by hand and placing the stonework ourselves... but man- since we couldn't afford the labor- it would have been nice.
Plants are expensive too. One red Japanese maple could run you $120 or more (a small one) Most small potted perennials can run from 4.99 to 14.99 per plant. Say you need 5 small boxwoods at 9.99 each, potting soil, mulch, and then some flowers to make a second row- that would be about 10 of them at 4.99 each...
Hope that puts your mind at ease PR- home ownership is extremely hard work. Unless they have the money to hire an architect, landscaper, gardener, maid, etc... well - the make over seems fine to whoever wins it.
However, that is not how our world works. To quote Princess Bride: "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something."
I am sure the family who is in second is a good family and applied because they really wanted the yard to be beautiful. If you watch any of those House Crasher shows... no one is in any real money problems... they just don't have the time or knowledge on how to do it.
Landscaping seems easy enough- but you have to know soil- what plants handle what light- soil- drought-how big they get- etc. Then there is color composition and so forth. We built a retaining wall in our back yard. One block was about $2.00 at home depot. We are doing OK financially, but build three tiers of a 15 foot long wall at 2 ft high with stone bricks.. yeah it adds up.
We saved money by hauling it all- digging the ground by hand and placing the stonework ourselves... but man- since we couldn't afford the labor- it would have been nice.
Plants are expensive too. One red Japanese maple could run you $120 or more (a small one) Most small potted perennials can run from 4.99 to 14.99 per plant. Say you need 5 small boxwoods at 9.99 each, potting soil, mulch, and then some flowers to make a second row- that would be about 10 of them at 4.99 each...
Hope that puts your mind at ease PR- home ownership is extremely hard work. Unless they have the money to hire an architect, landscaper, gardener, maid, etc... well - the make over seems fine to whoever wins it.
I can vouch for everything Nora posted and I'll add, that most would probably be surprised by how many plants are actually used in a pro landscape project. I did landscaping for several years and I've had small jobs take upwards of 50 plants. Get to a large job, you can easily hit 100. Also if you're doing it professionally, you can't use small trees, you have to get the full ones and they can get up there in price. It's not uncommon to be at $2,000+ in just materials and plants.
While were talking about the subject, I'll take a second and commend the landscape crew of BGW for keeping such a clean park. I never see weeds or anything major out of place when I'm there. The bushes are trimmed, grass is cut and nothing is dying. It takes and incredible amount of work to just do the maintenance part, let alone plant for the seasons. They are extraordinary!
While were talking about the subject, I'll take a second and commend the landscape crew of BGW for keeping such a clean park. I never see weeds or anything major out of place when I'm there. The bushes are trimmed, grass is cut and nothing is dying. It takes and incredible amount of work to just do the maintenance part, let alone plant for the seasons. They are extraordinary!
Nora said:
I was mainly getting at the fact that, while for anyone it is extremely hard work as well as expensive, it becomes an even harder challenge for those who are disabled or have gone through though times like losing a loved one. So while yes whoever wins rightfully deserves the prize, I personally feel like those who are less fortunate and can not perform any hard work or can not afford due to extreme financial hardship like paying medical bills, etc deserve it even more so than others who can at least perform the hard work or can afford the cost by paying for small bits over time.
EDIT: Thanks Nora for fleshing out your post and editing it to be longer
The park just posted a countdown pic of 2 actors who left...
No need for tears, guys. They've gone where the cool people are to live happily ever after! (Yeah!)
Young and cruising the world together. Couldn't happen to nicer and more talented guys.
Ha... Totally couldn't have seen this one coming. *rolls eyes* Only bad things happen when you turn everything into a popularity contest.
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I'm surprised they don't have a better way to monitor the input of votes. But I find it hilarious how they addressed it. They could have said something like, "It has come to our attention that someone has made more votes than allowed." But instead it is considered "voter misconduct".
Did anybody notice that the picture they posted for the 3 day countdown, wasn't Busch Gardens' swings. You can tell because the seats have blue belts, and the chains have blue covers. Or perhaps, these were some of the renovations that were coming to Der Wirbelwind!
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[instagram=http://instagram.com/p/lfsOO0xH-4/]
The park said they announce the Landscape winner next week and it has been just past 10 days now. People are asking who won and are getting no answer.