Gardening in Busted Stick.: Winter Storm, part one

Welcome to Busted Stick

I actually live in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where the winters are usually mild and the summers are brutal. I have, in my 15 years here, killed an untold number of plants. It took me a few years to realize that my gardening knowledge was based on living in Michigan for most of my childhood and what works there, won't work here.

I've long had dreams of having an English Cottage look and feel to my gardens. I gave up that dream and settled for "safe" trees and bushes, and then an ice storm unlike anything we've ever seen hit Tulsa in 2007 and killed almost every bush and tree I own. Leaving me momentarily heartbroken, but totally inspired.

I'm slowly re-developing my yard and painting the landscape I've seen in my inner vision since arriving. It can be done. It just takes patience, time, and a lot of research.

That's what this blog is. The culmination of my learning, my mistakes (and I've made many already) and hopefully in time, you will see my new canvas and my studying, trial and error, pay off with beauty.

I hope you keep coming back and checking on the progress. I'm excited.

What I'm Working on Right Now

This South West corner is the newest room in my yard. I will be working on this space most of the winter to get it ready for Spring planting. It is by far the most unsightly, what with the utility boxes and whatnot. It's also under a "no dig" restriction, so I'm having to build up and be creative with pots and planting locations. This is primarily shaded, I'm researching color and cover options while keeping it usable to as much of an extent as possible.

I've already added the trellis, as well as two bushes to hide the boxes - and I'm building up a brick garden spot just outside of the shade and next to the trellis for my climbing morning glories. I like entrances.

In the back will be large pots of ferns, hostas, and whatever other shade loving things I can find. - My "pots" won't be pots so much as they will be feeding troughs from the local AG store. A trick I learned from a California gardener who wasn't allowed to dig in parts of his yard either because of right of way restrictions.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Winter Storm, part one

My yard was at one time full of trees, shade, flowers and while not perfect landscaping, and least everything was living. Then we had an ice storm.

The winter storm of 2007 killed every tree and bush I owned except my maple.
I had Bradford Pears, Pin Oaks, Pine Trees, Azeala's, and roses. I was able to spare the roses for about six months, then they developed fireblight and that ended that.

We spent the first day of the ice storm listening to the gunshot sound of trees breaking throughout our neighborhood. By the time it was over my yard, both front and back were burried deep in branches.

My pin oak seen above split, one section going west, and the other north. We were able to save one fence, but not the other.

The beautiful mess below was my bradford. That was my favorite tree as it provided shade and beautiful flowers in the Spring. Our rabbit's hutch rested under this tree. And at 4 am, Jeff and I made what we call today, "The great rabbit rescue." I followed him with a lit candle (our power was out) to get Oreo out from under the collapsing tree. The ice had stripped the branches of my bradford like a banana. What is really neat about this particular tree though was once we got underneath, we discovered a cave like atmosphere. The branches were bent down and around the hutch, protected it from the wind and snow. Oreo was rescued safe and sound.

I'm not sure what went wrong with this shot, but that is the rest of my back yard covered in maple and bradford branches. The debris was so deep, front and back, that we actually had to hire someone (at three times the going rate) to clear it out for us. Fortunately electrical lines are burried in my neighborhood which made clean up a lot easier.

Having shade in Oklahoma is a must have. The summer sun kills lawns and makes growing things very difficult. My shaded and green yard, is no more.

I spent most of the Spring, planning, planting and digging out my new gardens.

The ice storm turned into a blessing. Because now I'm one year closer to having a yard that is more colorful and creative than I ever imagined.

I'll post the steps we took for Phase One, and then keep you posted on our plans for 2009.

My yard won't be Better Homes and Gardens beautiful yet, but it'll get there. It'll just take time.