Winter Storm Part Two

I couldn't complain really. About the storm I mean. Tens of thousands of people were without heat, electricity and water for weeks. We were lucky because even though we lost power, we had a fireplace and we had hot water. Clean hot water, which is more than a lot of people.

Friends with chainsaws helped other friends remove debris. Friend's with power let other friends stay with them. We spent the first three days at home, huddled up in front of our fireplace, and cooking on our gas grill, thinking this will pass in a day or two. We were wrong. By the third day we stayed with my Dad, he had power.


These aren't my photos - but if you want to see more about how widespread the impact was and how hard American Electric Power worked during this time period - see their link.

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.

Welcome

Well, this is a change. I have another blog that I use primarily for blogging about my life, and about God. But I found that having that mix confuses people, so this blog is just about gardening.

My mother is my muse when it comes to gardening. She's tilled and worked yards since I was a baby. Gardening was and is her meditation. (I'll show pictures in a later blog.) I've tried for years to emulate her beautiful gardens, with little success.

It wasn't until recently that I found out why. I learned how to garden in the land of black dirt and cold winters. Now I live in the land of sandy loam and red clay. And the winters? Well, if you call 20 degrees for three or four days a year, cold. Mostly it's in the 30-40's and we don't get real hard freezes. But the summers. Wow - we'll have two or three weeks of temps over 100 degress and that pretty much kills everything. But I keep trying. I guess that makes me a Homicidal Horticulturist in Denial. I pick my victims by the flats and by the gallon drum.

But not this year. THIS year I've spent months reading blogs, and studying my area. I've planned, plotted, planted and pruned. With some success I might add and only a few losses. Won't you please join me while I learn how to plant what really grows in Oklahoma.