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.

Geology Lesson for Calvert County

The first visit to our soon-to-be home and garden in 2000 made it very clear that the area has a distinctive and challenging geology.  While the house sits on a flat bit of land, directly behind it to the East and South were steep slopes averaging 45 degrees.  Before buying it, the realtor scheduled a person from Calvert County who explained that the slope was prone to erosion if water runs over the surface, and that the best way to protect it was to have drains take the water off before it reaches the edge, and pipe the water down to the bottom.

In 2001, a local nursery installed drains at the driveway and the natural entrance to the ravine, to take away the water as the county person recommended.  They also cleaned-out the trash plants of sumac, wild grape vines, honeysuckle vines, and wild roses.  They planted in a variety of different plants such as ink berry, Henry's Garnet Itea, Clethra, and hollies to hold the soil in place.  It all looked very good and was watered carefully through the drought of the summer of 2002. 

Then in the spring of 2003, when Spring rains came, part of the section graded and planted by the nursery collapsed.  So, a number of seedlings were ordered from Musser Forests to plant into raw soil.  The neighbor next door took a photo of me planting them into the steep, exposed soil.  Even the dog did not want to climb down into the treacherous slope!

We learned from a bore sample done by our neighbors that from the surface there is about 20 feet of sand until there is a layer of clay that is a few feet think.  The clay acts as a water barrier, so the water runs down to the clay, then moves sideways.   It is easy to see where the clay layer is, because there are a number of tree that start growing at that level.

So, this is one of the ongoing challenges of trying to provide good stewardship to the site and its environmental needs.