Winter Damage

By Skeeter The sun is shining in my Georgia Garden today! A perfect time to take inventory of any damage the weekend snow fall may have caused. Above is the picture of my favorite Azalea Bush weighted down with snow. As you can see, she is a tough girl as she is once again standing tall with no damage! The Azalea's in the woods, even though protected a bit from the trees above, had a white blanket on them as well. Now standing tall and proud! I was not too worried about the front planters as the Camellia and Japanese Maples are stout thus, looked as though they were holding their own. However, the Nandina was a mere blob under the heavy snow. Upright she stands today! The snow really did weigh heavy on the Nandina's and I just knew there would be damage. But no damage could be seen by my eyes! The branches of the bush are pretty flexible to say the least. The snow covered planters were really pretty covered in white. I am thrilled to see them happy in the shining sun today! The Butterfly Bushes were so full of snow they were lying on the ground as if dead for sure. But a few hours with warm sunshine on them, and they sprung back to life as well... Since we do not normally have such snow falls in our neck of the woods, we do not own a snow shovel. In order to keep the snow off the front walk way to the house which faces north, I was sweeping the snow off with a broom every 40 minutes or so. One time as I was sweeping I heard this awful snapping. I turned to see this tree fall into our yard. Yikes, good thing we postponed our planned Virginia trip over the long weekend. We now had work to tend instead of playing. Arggggg, it never ends around here... The snow continued to fall after the tree was lying on the ground. It was a pretty piece of art work made by nature but must not stay in place. This tree is always the first to drop her leaves in the fall. I do not think she was healthy for a long time. She was leaning really badly towards our yard. I have talked about this tree in the past. If you missed that Posting, Click HERE to see the Winged Elm's story. As you can see, the tree was practically uprooted. The Elm was sitting in a pool of water. Look at the puddle under the root ball. We have had excessive amounts of rain fall the past several months and this ares is where the rain drains or should I say does not drain properly like most of our backyard. The tree is actually over our back fence and belongs to the land owners behind our property. They do not have a house on this land as it belongs to nature for now. So we decided to not bother the land owner and remove the tree ourselves. It also knocked over the fence post so we will repair that as well. We spent the day cutting the smaller branches and twigs and relocating them to the brush pile. The yard is so soggy that we were making ruts in the ground with the wheel barrow. We have decided that since the tree is arched and not too much of her is touching the ground, that we will leave her be for now. We fear we will do more damage to the yard if we cut up large heavy logs with the ground being so fragile. We will wait until the yard dries a bit to remove her. Gee, that condo living is sure looking good right about now. hee hee... Lookie lookie what I spotted today! The first bloom on a Spirea! Also the trees are budding! And my most happiest moment was when I spotted this bud on a Daffy! I never have luck with daffodils returning for me so I am most excited to see this bud...
Here are some of my friends that were not bothered by the white stuff falling last Friday evening.

Over all, One tree lost but no more WINTER DAMAGE, In the Garden...

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden