Worry is like a rocking chair, it's gives you something to do but gets you nowhere!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Ms. Doris' Garden After The Storm

About 2:30 this morning we had a band of severe weather come through our area, it lasted about two hours. In our area we call them thunderboomers because the thunder is so loud and strong it shakes the houses. The lightning show was like being in a disco with the swirling disco ball....remember those? And the wind oh my! Mid morning I answered a knock at my front door to find Ms. Doris standing there with a very distressed look on her face. All she could say was, "My garden is destroyed." I grab my camera and off we went to survey the damage. The first photo is the main section of her very large gardens February 1st of this year. There has been rapid growth and many new plantings in the ground and in containers added to this area in the last 6 weeks. When we got back to her gardens, this is the first sight I saw. Photos below are of the same area.

That's her garden shed in the back.
Two very large branches from the top of a tall Maple Tree had crashed into her gardens.
Only a dedicated gardener will understand the blood, sweat and tears it takes to garden on this scale and the sinking feeling in your heart when you see this type of damage.
Even in her distressed state of mind and running around picking limbs out of plants and her wonderful husband cutting up the larger ones, she sent me on my way with two pass-a-longs. A purple butterfly bush and a hydrangea, oh, she has over 71 hydrangeas...give you an idea of the hugeness of her gardens?
I left her with a hug and encouraging words that her plants will probably look better than she has imagined once the limbs are removed.

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Today I am Thankful that Ms. Doris and her husband were not injured as these limbs could have fallen on their home.

29 comments:

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

Oh my gosh Darla. I'm so glad Ms. Dorris and her DH are fine, but know exactly how she feels looking at limbs all over her gardens. Like you, I think once the debris is lifted she might be pleasantly surprised. Plus, things have a tendency to bounce back even better.

Hugs to both of you ~ FlowerLady

Gardener on Sherlock Street said...

I heard you had storms. Yikes. I hope they can clear the limbs easily and the garden will recover. New pots needed for sure but gardens are amazing at coming back. And, she's still sharing plants with you. She'll be fine and the gardens beautiful again!

Becca's Dirt said...

OH my I can certainly understand that kind of frustation. But all you can do is pick up the pieces and put back together what you can. Blessings that they weren't hurt. We had that line of storms come thru during the evening. I grabbed my purse and Buddy's leash and sat tight ready in case anything happened. Then it was over. Hope things are looking up now. Here, it is gorgeous today even if cool. Tonight going down to upper 30's or low 40's. Yikes. Have a good day Darla.

tina said...

It's always tough when this happens. Poor Ms. Doris. The good thing is gardens are resilient and will recover and maybe even come back stronger.

Unknown said...

Oh dear poor dear Ms. Doris. I totally feel her pain. On the upside as Tina said gardens are resilient, the gardener has a harder time recovering ~ Thankfully the garden has a way of healing our souls.

NanaK said...

Ugh. Sure hope she finds that most everything is OK.

Patsy said...

That is to bad there will be lots of repotting and clean up.

Lois said...

Oh no! Those storms were just awful. I think I even heard some hail at one point. It has been a long day at work since I think I only got a couple of hours of sleep! I'm so glad Ms. Doris and her hubby are OK.

Anonymous said...

Poor Ms. Doris! This just sucks. I'm so glad there were no human casualties. Isn't it interesting that the first place Ms. Doris came for comfort was to your door?

Kelsie from Our Country Home and Studio Photography said...

My goodness poor Ms and Mr Doris...So much work ahead of them...I am so glad no persons were hurt up your way either...I am running on just a couple hrs of sleep due to our weather radio going off non stop from 3am until 7.45am when I crawled back into bed just in time to close my eyes for a few moments before the 2yr old was up and going for the day.

Other than the lack of sleep, we are ok and took no damage on our property, well none hubby saw on his quick walk around before work...all cats and chickens are accounted for also lol.

Stay safe
Blessings Kelsie

Donna said...

Poor Ms. Doris. As you say, thankfully they were not injured. Hopefully she will get her garden back to normal soon.

Unknown said...

Now that stinks! I can't imagine the feeling of discovering the wreckage. But gardeners are resilient types - hope she gets back to where things were before. Makes me think "plant insurance" isn't such a bad idea.

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad that Ms. Doris and her husband are safe & sound. I'm sure the garden will bounce back after this trauma and be better than ever. :)

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

Sounds like quite a storm. I can imagine seeing those big branches on top of her garden was upsetting. Glad no one was hurt.

Lona said...

Oh Dear! What a heartbreaking situation. It always just devastates you when stuff like this happens to the gardens you have worked so hard on. I hope she find under the branches that it is not as bad as it looks.

Randy Emmitt said...

Darla,
You must not be very far away from us. Around 3:30am last night we got bad storms, no damage in the garden. There is a split tree leaning on our road power line though, the power company has been called. Meg Told me Sunday she saw a 4 ft diameter tree on a small house in Durham, yes a 4 ft diameter makes our large oaks like like toothpicks she said.

Tatyana@MySecretGarden said...

Scary... I am glad you all are O.K. Very sorry for the garden.

Karen said...

Poor Ms. Doris. I'm glad you were there to lend her some support and I'm glad no one was seriously injured. These storms are so fast-moving and do so much destruction in such a short time, what a shame. Hopefully, once the limbs are picked up there won't be too much more damage revealed.

HolleyGarden said...

Oh, my! I hope when it is cleared away not too much is destroyed. It's nice that she had you to help her - probably for emotional support as much as anything else.

Ruth Hiebert said...

Oh that must be devastating.I do hope her garden bounces back more beautiful than ever.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Oh My Gosh, Darla. This made me cry. I KNOW how much work a garden can take... I feel so sorry for them... BUT--you are right. It could have been worse.

Knowing them, they'll have everything back into good order soon. Nature can be so darn cruel.
Hugs,
Betsy

Teresa said...

Yes, that is heartbreaking. Glad that all of you made it through safely. The disco lights and thunder woke me at about 3 am. I (and my garden) were lucky to come through unharmed. There was a fatality just a few miles from here. There is much to be thankful for today.

xoxo
T

Julie said...

I was way down almost into Ft. Lauderdale when it came through down here!!! Such fun, eh? Sorry for your friends damages. I'm sure you are right...won't take long and everything will look lush and full again!!!

Chandramouli S said...

Oh my goodness! I can imagine days to efforts going in vain and yes, it's heartbreaking for a gardener to witness this happening to his/her lovely carpet of soil.
I'm sure Ms Doris can bring it all back, for she seems to love her carpet and all that grows in it.

One said...

You may want to consider trimming the lower branches of your trees. This may have been a warning.

Twisted Fencepost said...

I can imagine how disheartening this must be for her.
Nothing worse than having something you've worked so hard at to be destroyed.
I'm hoping after the branches were removed that the damage wasn't as bad as it seemed!

Cindy said...

I can only imagine how upset she is. I hope things weren't too badly damaged.

Egretta Wells blog said...

I'm so glad no one was hurt! We had warnings and I did a lot of praying. The storm passed us by. But after going through 3 hurricanes with many trees blown down and apart, I know how they must feel. So disheartening.

Malar said...

Oh dear! It's evry hurting to see our garden get destroyed! Hoep Ms.Dorris will feel better soon!