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SUCCESS WITH MEXICAN GARDENERS


Apachewoman

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Please provide your advice and share your experience about HOW one sustains gardener services during absences from Mexico property.

My experience has been that when I am away, my gardener takes a vacation from his agreed to schedule of services on which the welfare of my yard relies.

And yard work is done just before I return...with a flurry of activity if gardener knows when I am returning. Otherwise I return to a overgrown and underwatered

garden/yard....instead of a freshly macheted cut on the forest or jungle that has formed during my absence. 

I have used management services, neighbors, partial payment in advance and balance upon return to hope for better performance.  I have not found any

of these and some other techniques of any value.

Other homeowners have mentioned the same experience. 

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

😕

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We travel often.  We tell the gardener that he may visit the property any time he wants along with his family (he normally works very early mornings, but we know he enjoys bringing his wife and child to see his handiwork when they are available later in the day).  In the hot weather he likely comes in the evenings to swim (he also maintains our pool).  He does not have a key to the house itself only to the gate and garden.  Having him here at odd hours with his truck parked outside makes the house look less vacant.  

I also contract with Roma Management to pay the gardener and to inspect the property (inside and out); Veronica from Roma visits the house once a week.  Last trip, my gardener reported a problem with a pump to Veronica who contacted our regular plumero; he came out and fixed it (she keeps a list of our contractors).  I leave her a deposit on hand for emergencies and her prices are very fair.  

Before I contracted with Roma, I made a point to introduce Veronica to our gardener at our home and she and he walked around and looked at the jardin at that initial meeting.  She knows what the jardin should look like and it is always nice when we return (we are usually away for 2 weeks when we travel).  

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Disagree! We have had staff in 8 different countries... Treat others as you would be treated... This pays off... That said we had to let our first maid go as after three years we found out she was stealing ... Her replacement however , is a gift from heaven... Our gardener is a gem also... 

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Your manner of expression/writing is interesting and entertaining...a compliment to you!

Very descriptive without all the analytical posturing...

Thanks for sharing.

Are you a reflection of your POSTING NAME...'jonny in trouble'???

I appreciate your sharing..and am aware that the cultural and educational differences 'play in the matter of decision making'....so to speak.

Sorry about your ruined pata de elifante.(pony tail palm)....

Plants are friends.

Hope your new home is special.

Happy  New Year

Carolyn

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5 hours ago, jonnyintrouble said:

That said I have to say, because you have a maid and gardener you can count on doesn't mean the other millions of Gringos residing in the nation do.  It's my nature to treat people as I'd like to be treated, the Golden Rule.  That said, after 37 years of living here your method hasn't worked for me.  Maybe it's the way I part my hair.

This "thing"about the nature of Mexican logic/behavior has more to do with their living in an impoverished nation than what they learned after 5-6 years of formal schooling, or what they were taught by their parents who likely had little of value to teach.  The church goers (or a portion of them) are the "good" ones.

Bone up.  Mexico has had 30-plus constitutions.  They like to talk about their culture but culture isn't art and architecture, music and dance, it's all learned/transmitted behavior.

IMHO if anything mandates a Mexican it's their opportunistic instincts.  That's the way you get when you're not sure where your next taco is coming from. 

There''s a rule in cognition studies; The more words or phrases a language has for the same object the more the social interest will be in that object.  They have about 30 words for children, we have, drape ape, kids, and whatever few I can't think of at the mo.   30 words is about the same as the Eskimos have for snow.  The North American can be, Gringo, Gabacho (and a couple more common only in certain regions).  If they really respected you they'd call you, Estadoundience or extranjeros.  But they don't.   I've heard estadoundience used once when I was introduced to the faculty at a university.  Yes, university directors just might have some class.

IMHO There's a motive for every act of kindness, be it being a gentleman or lady in mixed company or the dude might be attracted to your daughter, and the big one: business.

If the USA and Los Ustados Unidos de Mexico have come to work at getting along it's founded in business relations.   Again, bone up, history will teach you they have no other motive to put up with us.  Thanks Teddy Roosevelt!  Thanks ICE.

I've lived in Mexico longer than you.  I've lived in more places here than you, including Tijuana (where I worked in the city jail),  Ajijic and Guadalajara, Morelia, Michoacán, and currently in Mexico City.  I disagree with every word of every paragraph that you wrote in that quote.  Some of what you wrote shocks me to the core: "...they were taught by their parents who likely had little of value to teach..."  "...the church goers (or a portion of them) are the "good" ones... "...if anything mandates a Mexicn it's their opportunistic instincts...". 

Jonny in trouble, I'd say maybe it's the way you part your hair.  If you look at Mexico and its population with those attitudes, those attitudes are exactly what you're going to get back.  I sincerely hope what you wrote is tongue in cheek. 

Oh and PS: it's estadounidense.  And we are all North Americans here: canadienses, estadounidenses, y mexicanos.

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43 minutes ago, More Liana said:

I've lived in Mexico longer than you.  I've lived in more places here than you, including Tijuana (where I worked in the city jail),  Ajijic and Guadalajara, Morelia, Michoacán, and currently in Mexico City.  I disagree with every word of every paragraph that you wrote in that quote.  Some of what you wrote shocks me to the core: "...they were taught by their parents who likely had little of value to teach..."  "...the church goers (or a portion of them) are the "good" ones... "...if anything mandates a Mexicn it's their opportunistic instincts...". 

Jonny in trouble, I'd say maybe it's the way you part your hair.  If you look at Mexico and its population with those attitudes, those attitudes are exactly what you're going to get back.  I sincerely hope what you wrote is tongue in cheek. 

Oh and PS: it's estadounidense.  And we are all North Americans here: canadienses, estadounidenses, y mexicanos.

Maybe he writes that way to try to get a "shock" fracture.

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6 hours ago, jonnyintrouble said:

after 37 years of living here

 

17 minutes ago, jonnyintrouble said:

Then you've seen my passports, all three of them

That don't add up. I thought that they were 10 years each. Also that does not mean that you lived here all that time.

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On 12/30/2018 at 4:40 PM, Apachewoman said:

Please provide your advice and share your experience about HOW one sustains gardener services during absences from Mexico property.

My experience has been that when I am away, my gardener takes a vacation from his agreed to schedule of services on which the welfare of my yard relies.

And yard work is done just before I return...with a flurry of activity if gardener knows when I am returning. Otherwise I return to a overgrown and underwatered

garden/yard....instead of a freshly macheted cut on the forest or jungle that has formed during my absence. 

I have used management services, neighbors, partial payment in advance and balance upon return to hope for better performance.  I have not found any

of these and some other techniques of any value.

Other homeowners have mentioned the same experience. 

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

😕

How about getting a housesitter while you are gone?  You leave gardener's pay with them so he is only paid if he works.  I have used housecarers.com quite a few times with pretty good success.  The homeowner pays nothing to use the service and housesitters do not get paid.  They even pay their own airfare.

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On 12/31/2018 at 6:59 PM, jonnyintrouble said:

Canadians?  Oh no eh?

You've lived here longer than me?  Then you've seen my passports, all three of them.   

OMG eh.  I lived in more states that you mentioned.  But it doesn't really matter, it's not how many it's if you stayed home and watched Fox News and never got out.   Or if your antennae suffers blockage.  And a grammar Nazi as well.  Kool!   I hope you're not one of those who says, like I said.  Now that's barfable.

 If you look at Mexico and its population with those attitudes, those attitudes are exactly what you're going to get back.  The self-fulfilling prophecy, eh?  

How about the fallacy of visual knowledge?  That one's a brain tumor, festered and about to start leaking. 

I have to agree with More Liana.  I do not believe all Mexicans are instinctively or culturally dishonest.  

By the way, More Liana was not correcting your grammar but rather your use of vocabulary and your spelling.  And the word is elefante, not elifante.

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3 hours ago, jonnyintrouble said:

I reread my post and I didn't see the word, all.  But if you think it's there knock yourself out.  

And the word is elefante, not elifante.  Thanks Google.   Do you provide this service to all the members or just the ones who fall phat at the gossip table at the Sunday sewing circles?

Jeez, so far nobody has caught Liana big flub in her grammar correction.  One tamale goes to the winner. tick tock tick tock...

As in pata de elifante (sic)

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On 12/30/2018 at 4:40 PM, Apachewoman said:

Please provide your advice and share your experience about HOW one sustains gardener services during absences from Mexico property.

My experience has been that when I am away, my gardener takes a vacation from his agreed to schedule of services on which the welfare of my yard relies.

And yard work is done just before I return...with a flurry of activity if gardener knows when I am returning. Otherwise I return to a overgrown and underwatered

garden/yard....instead of a freshly macheted cut on the forest or jungle that has formed during my absence. 

I have used management services, neighbors, partial payment in advance and balance upon return to hope for better performance.  I have not found any

of these and some other techniques of any value.

Other homeowners have mentioned the same experience. 

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

😕

I think your experience is very common-they take a holiday when you aren't here-meanwhile some plants die or get out of control. For 13 years we had a house outside Puerto Vallarta that we only used 4 months of the year. The lady gardener had keys to everything. One year when we returned we learned that this lady and her family (4 people) had moved into our house for awhile-something we had told her was not allowed. Also some plants just disappeared. So after that we have a lawyer come to the property once a week and check things and pay the gardener. The lawyer and his family lived in a small apartment so they loved to visit our large property. 

Lakeside I have kept an eye on a number of properties of absentee owners for years (no charge). When I sold my house here one of these absentee owners insisted I move into their house as they suspected their gardener (who was paid a year in advance) was slacking off-missing plants and plants out of control. So living in their house I got any eye full of how the gardener worked. Sometimes he only stayed 15 minutes.  So that gardener is history. It is human nature with some people-slack off when there is no one checking on you. 

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19 minutes ago, jonnyintrouble said:

Paid a year in advance?  Luckily I didn't spit my coffee on my brand new monitor.  The lottery would have been a better investment. 

God how I have tried to be honest and kind to every local I meet.  There seems to be a tenancy to confuse kindness with weakness.  I've seen it over and over and over.

Look at it with your Western Anglo-educated logic .. How in the world could a First World successful intelligently prepared creature expect someone with the low status, bottom of the barrel, fit for those who never made it to the third grade, dirt poor employee to have any idea what's right and wrong in your complicated world view and value system?  I bet the poor dude doesn't have a 500-word vocab.  How do you deal with your own ego maintenance knowing this guy kicked your a$$?

 

We have read this guy before. For those who don’t recall or are new here, he will continue getting more insulting and degrading, drawing other posters into arguments, being warned by moderators until finally he will be tossed off the board just as he has done before. He needs some of us to fight with him and others to try and and shame him. It is what he feeds on. We can also simply ignore him. Whatever we do or don’t do, the end result is a given. He will get tossed. We each need to decide what part we want to play in his online drama. 

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Posting so many times in such a short period of time suggests that the person may be off his/her meds, or has found the back door to the liquor store open. I'm a little sympathetic, but not very.

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