Massacre of the Parkway Strip

We got notices a week ago that the city was going to be doing repair work on the street and warning us about watering our yards during the repairs. No one said anything, however, about my parkway strip.

They started by making cuts in the sidewalk yesterday, but today they removed all the curb and most of the sidewalk. When the bobcat started rolling over the blue sage, I decided I couldn't watch and went to work. Here's what I found when I came home:


One blue sage was hit the worst:


I tried propping it up in the hope that it might survive:


They killed a sprinkler too:


Thankfully, most of the Ithuriel's Spears (bulbs) came through unscathed.

These were a near miss:


As were these:

But at least a third of these were run over:


At least the flowers on the house side of the sidewalk were unaffected, like these California Fuschia:


And these clarkia:


Meanwhile, I have devastated the north parkway strip, but for a good reason. Most of the wildflowers there, the bird's eye gilia and the phacelia have already gone to seed and turned brown, so I've started to remove them to give space for some of the small poppies to sprout and flower. I've done about two thirds of it so far, and it does look a little ragged.


At least now you can more clearly see the flowers on the blue-eyed grass (though they are closed by early evening):


Tomorrow, the horror starts anew.