The Ice Storm Cometh

      So it rained on Saturday, what else is new.  Then sometime in the middle of the night, the ice hitting the side of the house woke me, and it takes a lot to wake me.  Andrew was called in to plow at the Agricultural college around 5 am.  He nearly tripped over the dog who sneaked upstairs (she is not allowed).  She doesn't like thunder and lightening and apparently ice storms too.

 

     All the branches are touching the ground.  Little bits of branches can be found every where. Most of the perennials I left standing are flattened.  I really hope the wind doesn't pick up.

      I looked out the front window this morning and saw my English Oak snapped off.  A good friend of mine gave it to me after my father died this spring.  There is always life after death, no one should forget that.  Even if there was a low branch I was going to nurse that tree back to life.

     But I was very happy to find it was just bent.  I may need staked for a year to straighten it up but it was fine.  Now I will need to dig its head out of the snow and ice.  That is the only problem with Engish Oak keeping ther leaves all winter, they are just a magnet for the ice.

     I found out in what direction the freezing rain was coming from. North, and a bit to the west.  All the windows on the back side of the house had a shear coat of ice on them and all the clap boards had a row of  tiny icicles.

I like it on the house, not on the trees.

     We lost a good healthy spruce tree. A dead one or dying one could have dropped but no, it had to be a living one.  At least it fell towards the woods and not the play set and the power lines.

This young spruce is also leaning.  Got to find another stake.



     The old birch at the side of the drive way is leaning further into the elm tree that was planted 15 years ago.  Andrew has been threatening to cut it for the last few years because it has been dying back and the Elm has been getting bigger (they grow fast - the Elm). 

I guess Andrew will have to sharpen his saw.

When Nature Changes Your Garden

     Years ago when this Red Spruce was younger (and smaller), it had leaned.  We managed to straighten it and for a few years it was doing beautifully.  Last November during one of those gales (not even a hurricane), the poor spruce leaned again.

     This time the roots were exposed.  It could have been straightened either by staking (big stake) or by binding it to the oak tree behind it.  But I was not risking damaging the oak. So we decided it had to go.

In front of the spruce was a Bayberry (Myrica) we transferred from Andrew's Parent's cottage along the Bay of Fundy a few years ago.  It rooted in nicely and was doing really well.  I was not risking damaging that.   We moved it to another part of the garden and I'll cross my fingers and pamper it well.

On a nice quiet Saturday morning out came the power saw.  The bed around the tree holds my collection of mini hosta as well as some other perennials, so Andrew had to be careful where he stepped.  Yes he does know what he is doing.

 But, of course the tree had to get caught up in the tips of the branches of the Red Maple.

Maybe, just a little push??

Yes, that is all it took.  Down it came. 

There is really no joy when a tree comes down, other than it did not make any damage.

It just came short of the cactus bed.

Andrew decided to pull it out, wiggling it around the beds.  I was there cringing, 'don't rip anything out'.  Can't you just cut it up here?? No he pulled it out.  A branch or two brushed over the end of the mini host bed.  Some of those were very small and had heaved a bit over the winter (probably should have covered a few).  I guess I will have to wait a few weeks to see if they have made it.

The dynamics of the garden will change a bit, that hosta bed will get a bit more afternoon sun.  We will have to see how much as the season progresses.  It was a tall skinny spruce, not like the bushy ones at the corner.  If they went, then the shade garden would no longer be the shade garden.  We may replace the tree with another evergreen, but move it out a bit further.  We are not sure, we will have to think about it.  I know I want a native tree of some type, not some new cultivar.