Thursday, February 18, 2010

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

27 comments:

  1. I'm glad to see that there wasn't much harm done by those tons of snow weighing down those delicate branches. Being a dyed-in-the-skin tropical person I always thought that one season meant you had you to plant your garden all over again. Silly me!

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  2. Ooops! Sorry ... I meant one season of snow.

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  3. Skeeter,
    Not much damage if you ask me! The tree gone you will have more sun for the yard.

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  4. I have zero knowledge of snow, BUT have read that the snow causes less damage than frost...lucky you! We have had 4 mornings of thick frost everywhere. My plants so far seem to have a good attitude about it..glad you only lost one tree..it was sitting in a pool of water there. We have a very soggy backyard as it is at the bottom of our hill. Love all the bright red Northern Cardinals at your feeders..warmer weather this weekend!!

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  5. They had survived through the last winter, and they will do again and again till the end... ~bangchik

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  6. Glad to see your gardens survived Skeeter. Loved your cardinal video. How neat to see a daffy coming up too. I really loved seeing your snow scenes and then the same scenes with sunshine.

    FlowerLady

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  7. Can you believe we had winter storm warnings that day? The local weather people were predicting a couple of inches here, and school was canceled for the day. Ha! It didn't happen here. Looks like you got a fair share of it, though. It's pretty but nice that it disappears so fast in the south. I guess it was time for that tree to come down anyway, and I'm just glad you and the Saint weren't underneath when it happened.

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  8. This is the great thing about your Georgia snow--it's gone in a day! Darla is right that snow itself doesn't usually cause much damage; in fact,here in colder climes it acts as an insulator for our plants during the winter. Too bad about the tree, but I have a feeling it was dying anyway, and the cold was just the last straw. Looks like your visitors were very happy you had plenty of treats to keep them warm!

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  9. That poor tree just did not want to sit in the cold water anymore. Such a shame to lose it. The cardinals are awesome! You have so many!

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  10. You have given me (in southern Virginia, zone 7) such hope seeing those tiny blossoms! We still have snow, but this weekend temps are supposed to hit 50, so it will melt. Our pines and timber got hit hard. We have a lot of broken branches to move. Luckily the fruit trees in the orchard did fine and I "think" (hoping!) my perennial garden is okay too.

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  11. Fantastic pics of the snow Skeeter. I'm so glad that none of your plants got hurt. Sorry the tree fell but they can't take that sitting in water unless they are cypress.
    Sure hope your back yard dries out soon. Mine is still mushy.

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  12. So lucky to have blooms!

    I think my lilacs suffered the worst snow damage. Many of them are still leaning at crazy angles. Probably have to remove parts of the bushes this spring. Don't know how much bloom will have to be sacrificed. Maybe I'll do my cutting after they bloom.
    Marnie

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  13. Oh my how I wish I had just one cardinal. My employee told me one year I had a female but no male :(
    Your tree roots not only were very wet but they look like shallow roots. Pine is a good one for that. Once size becomes large, forget it, it pulls from the ground.
    Speaking of Elm, we cut one down that was believed to be the oldest (Dutch Elm) 270 something years. So sad about this desease. Very little elm left.

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  14. Glad you didn't have that much damage. A lot of my garden is still wrapped in four foot snowdrifts, so I won't know for a while yet how plants are faring in all that snow. I suspect there will be breakage in the shrubs again, but those are the perils of gardening where I do.

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  15. I'm happy the nandina did OK. I have a baby one I'm treating as a houseplant since I don't think it could survive outside all year here in the frozen ground.

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  16. Poor tree. We had a lot of that around here. Our power was knocked out for about 20 hours a week ago. What a mess.

    I saw a lot of daffs with buds yesterday! I was quite surprised!!! I can't wait until the blooming commences.

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  17. Good Morning everyone! Another sunny day here in GA and calling for 60's tomorrow! You know I will be outside in that warmth!

    I will drop by each of your blogs to say hey....

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  18. Glad that was all the damage you had (even if it really was not your).

    That is one busy and happy feeding station.

    The elm tree Dawn spoke of was named Herbie and had survived 14 bouts of duch elm but the 15th one got it. The man that had been the caretaker for Herbie for many, many years was at the cutting down of it and he is now in his 90's. As sad as it was to see the tree come down, my heart ached more for him but it took it in stride. Now the state of Maine is opened for a replacement for it and we have one in out town that will be in the running for it. In fact, Tina's sister that "does not understand why anyone wants to garde" has been in love with this tree forever and her daughter had a large and gorgeous picture done and framed for her for Christmas. So Dawn if you know another on that should be on the list go to the town of Yarmouth's web site to see about the process of getting it on the list. BTW, after it was cut down and examined the think it was "only" 217 years old.

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  19. What a relief that your plants weren't damaged. I've had my Butterfly break in half and come up out of the ground from heavy snow before.
    It does look like the tree that fell was probably on it's way down soon anyway, too bad it took the fence with it.
    I can't believe all the Cardinals on the feeders, they are so pretty!

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  20. Tina, You are TDY, get off the computer and enjoy yourself a bit lol....

    Lola, I am thinking of making a rain garden in the back yard. lol but as we know, a drought will soon follow all this rain so I must just tough it out....

    Jean, that is such an interesting story on the tree and I think Dawn should write up a posting on it some time. I know it must have been a sad day for him to cut that tree that he had babied all those years... So sad....

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  21. I am amazed none of the snow laden shrubs you pictured were damaged. Wet, heavy snow is much feared by gardeners up here. I have been known to race outside with a broom to gently dislodge some of the snow that can weigh even mature birch trees to the ground. Sometimes they never recover their shape. Finding snapped shrubs and trees after snowmelt is almost a rite of spring for me....

    That spirea bloom was very cheerful!

    Christine in Alaska

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  22. Christine, I did take the broom to a few things as the snow fell. That is the things I felt may suffer the most. The rest I took a gamble and it paid off. I knew it was to warm up soon after the snowfall...

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  23. The before and after snow shots are great...sorry about the tree!

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  24. Lucky that you had no damage other than that one tree. I am hoping when the snow finally melts, that I won't either.

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  25. Mom and Dawn, They did a whole piece on the 'Tree Man' a few weeks ago. I read the story word for word about that old elm and thought it so darned sad it finally succumbed to the disease and that he could not keep it going any longer. So sad!

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  26. I read your snow post 1st, then this one. I'm glad you were able to enjoy all that snow without any real damage. That tree needed to come down & nature did you a favor.

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  27. How It Grows, I did like that old tree after all the research I did on it but I guess it was time to say good bye...

    Deborah, We were lucky with this snow fall but as I mentioned, it was here one day then gone the next. The best kind of snows for little garden damage...

    Tina, Share that story with us some time. It would be a wonderful post....

    Mr. McGregor's Daughter, Yes, I do think it was time for her to come down. Nature was kind and dropped her in a perfect spot with little damage. The crabapple is near there and it was not touched at all. A relief for sure....

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