When we were renovating our house to make it easier to live in we asked our contractor to take care of a little plant we’d seen growing out of the roof. Well, as it turns out, his notion of taking care of it was to shave it down so it couldn’t be seen. You can see how well that worked.
I had to go to the home center, find the stucco patch, and then get to work: up the ladder, remove the stucco, carefully find the roots and make sure all of the plant is gone, clean the surface, and apply the stucco.
Then I had to wait a day to see how it dried and put on a second coat.
All done.
I guess you could look at it as a 3-day job, since I went to the home store on Saturday, did the job on Monday, and applied the second coat on Tuesday. Total time spent in the home center and up the ladder: 30 minutes.
The contractor “did” the job much more efficiently: 15 seconds to shave the plant. I think I did the job better, though.
Any ideas what species the seedling is? Based on tenacity, I’d guess strangler fig, but the leaf patterning reminds me more of a stopper.
We know a lot about tenacious roof dwelling plants. Most conspicuous at our house is the wisteria sinensis. The recent winds tore it off the scaffolding we built for it at the edge of the roof, and we’ll have to remove a great chunk of it. It resembles iron, now that it is 10 years old. But whatever we remove will be replaced in no time. Only difference is that with our now vast wisteria experience we’ll be the boss. At least that is our intention.
Whew! Glad I got this one when it was still little! I’m fairly sure it wasn’t something house-killing like Wisteria can be, but I rest easier knowing it’s no longer growing out there on my wall…