After Irene

Yes, I know, Irene passed through at the end of August.  But amazingly, there was no significant damage to any of the gardens in the yard, and only a small hole poked into one porch roof by a falling branch.  Our next door neighbor told us that one branch was "planted" about 4 feet away from our sliding glass doors out of the basement.  We found a deep hole created by that branch.  Our neighbors moved it away, so the picture on the right may be it.  It was about 30 feet long, and the butt end was about 6 inches in diameter - amazing when I consider how far it must have traveled in the wind!

The front of the yard had shredded twigs, with leaves still attached, that had been pulverized by the heavy wind.  The leaves included both oak and tulip popular, and Mike from next door told me that he had looked out in the middle of the night and saw many of the trees between his house and the bay bent at 90 degrees!

The rain arrived first for 24 hours so that the sandy soil was saturated with water when the high winds hit.  Many of the trees were pushed over sideways ripping roots out of the soil.  But other trees had been damaged with some micro-burst patterns, because the trunks were severely twisted.  They had been wrung out like a washcloth, all twisted and splintered.  I am just as glad we were not at home when it all happened, especially since the power was out for a week.  Debbie, from next door, counted 26 trees across the road between our street and the main road.

There is one major improvement for us, thanks to Irene.  Many of the tall, weedy sumac trees that grow on the steep slope between our house and the "flats" were blown over.  This shot of a sailboat seen between the trunks of the crape myrtle show how much more open the view has become.  There is still one ugly sumac surviving. I do hate them because the roots are very in-effective in holding the soil in place, and they are constantly breaking off in much milder storms.  I don't have a picture of the wild cherry that is near the top of the hill, but the top of it was severely broken up.  While I like the cherry for the sake of the birds, the top keeps getting shattered in every wind storm.  Weak sucker growth fills in the top of the cherry, then it is partially broken or bent, and hangs there, slowly rotting before finally falling off.  We want to get a permit from the county to cut it down, and replace it with some smaller, deep rooted trees.  But I know the birds will miss feasting on all of those cherries as they ripen every summer.

 So, the labyrinth seems to have survived the heavy wind and rains.  I am very glad we put in the 10 tons of rock earlier, holding the soil in place at the top of the ravine.  There is fresh color from a new aster and echinea, and some of the foliage is turning colors in anticipation of the cooler temperatures.

But I am getting ahead of myself.  There are more photos to finish up for the next entry.