Backyard Tour (pre and post Flo makeover)

[Joe NC]

Here are a few photos from my backyard in Wilmington NC before and after it was rearranged by both hurricane Florence and a spin off tornado that she gifted.  Amazingly my house is nearly undamaged, yet the woods behind my house look like a clear cut.  Photos are after I had already started to cut and clear a bunch of fallen trees up, since the pics would have just been treetops sitting in the yard. I lost many of the mature trees in my yard, so I'm going from very shady to very sunny now.  It is a very different view from my back door, previously was a forest....   Of the palms only one trachy got totally crushed, one uprooted, and many needles and sabal minors that I had planted along the edge of the yard and on a trail I had in the woods were squashed my some massive tree trunks.  The front yard is basically untouched (lucky the tornado wasn't 100 yards north or my house would have been in the path), and the large sabals look nearly perfect.  Butia or butia hybrids, well..... after barely recovering from this winter, and now having their crowns bent over, they are looking pretty sad. 

On the positive side, I have so much more room for the palmy army I have sitting in pots.... so many trachys and sabals. 

Let's go on a tour!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

[Kim]

 Your garden was serene and beautiful! Now it is ransacked!

It looks like your palms tolerated the meteorological abuse better than the dicots. I hope you have a big fireplace for all that firewood.  And a strong back for cleaning up. Whew!

[Joe NC]

One more photo of the clear cut left by the tornado in the formerly dense woodlot of huge hardwoods behind my yard.  It's the new gap in tree canopy you can see in the background of most of my yard photos.

 

Edited September 20, 2018 by Joe NC

[kinzyjr]

Wow man!  Thanks for sharing the photos.  Hoping for a swift recovery!

[Josue Diaz]

Wow! Glad to hear your house is in good shape. I'll deal with fire danger and earthquakes, storms like these are terrifying 

[Laaz]

It will grow back in no time. Get out there where the tornado went through & scatter palmetto & minor seeds. Maybe plant some trachy's in there too.

[Joe NC]

8 minutes ago, Laaz said:

It will grow back in no time. Get out there where the tornado went through & scatter palmetto & minor seeds. Maybe plant some trachy's in there too.

Thanks!  I've been throwing handfuls of both sabals back there for years.  They grow sooooo slow in the dense shade, hopefully they will benefit from the sunshine. 

[Laaz]

Flooding gone down yet? I saw where I-40 was a river & they're saying I-95 wont reopen until the end of the month at the earliest.

[Laaz]

Look at the bright side, you'll have a endless supply of firewood & you didn't have any live oaks near by. Live oaks are one of the first trees to blow over in a hurricane because of their very shallow root system.

[PalmatierMeg]

What a mess, Joe. Reminds me of a year ago when Irma tore up my garden lot and destroyed nearly all our tropical trees. But the palms weathered the storm just fine. They are the way to go in hurricane prone areas. Now you wouldn't know a cat 2/3 storm blew through. A year from now your yard will look much better - different, maybe, but better than today. Think of all the new stuff you can plant and the excitement of finding it. Keep us updated on your progress. Glad your house came through okay.

[Missi]

Ugh I'm so sorry. I'm totally feeling your pain as I was in your shoes last year after being beat up just east of Irma's eye wall. All my non-native trees were either snapped in half for uprooted, the shade loving plants below getting crushed and sun burned. That was when I decided to put the turkeys in with the chickens and turn the turkey pen into a makeshift shadehouse for all the plants I was going to have to dig up and pot until the canopies grew back or shade trees were replaced. So much work but what a blessing that your house is fine! That being said, that doesn't take the pain of seeing your immaculate garden in disarray. Just wait until you see what a beautiful change a year can make, though. 

[RJ]

1 hour ago, Laaz said:

Look at the bright side, you'll have a endless supply of firewood & you didn't have any live oaks near by. Live oaks are one of the first trees to blow over in a hurricane because of their very shallow root system.

Good to know. I was going to plant some at our new lot for canopy, but now I'll really re consider that. I'm far enough inland that most hurricanes (save the one that started with an H) don't have much punch left by the time they get here. Flo was a windy rainstorm by the time it got to us in the midlands. 

Edited September 20, 2018 by RJ

[RJ]

Joe, glad you made it through okay, and your house is in one piece. I love the ocean, and have always wanted to live there but I have always reminded myself that I can always just visit. 

[Alicehunter2000]

 ..... At least your house didn't get damaged....the yard will recover and be different than before.

 

[Palm Tree Jim]

Glad the family and house are OK.

Time to start planning the new garden.

[Chester B]

I'm so sorry, I'm sure it was a shock at first.  The before pictures were nice and jungly.  In 2 years you probably won't even be able to see the damage at least.  The positive is that you can take all the things you've learned and I'm sure create an even better garden.  Good luck and I'm glad your house was ok.

[Turtlesteve]

17 hours ago, Laaz said:

Look at the bright side, you'll have a endless supply of firewood & you didn't have any live oaks near by. Live oaks are one of the first trees to blow over in a hurricane because of their very shallow root system.

Not sure I've heard this before - I thought live oaks are frequently cited as one of the most wind-resistant trees (other than palms)?

Sorry to see all the damage Joe - at least it missed your house.  Look forward to seeing the photos once it's all cleaned up and re planted

[Laaz]

Every time we have a tropical storm of hurricane come through, first thing down or I should say uprooted are the oaks.

 

[NC_Palms]

Those after photos are painful to look at. Wishing for a speedy recovery for you and all of us here in Eastern NC.

 

... and hey, maybe you can replace those fallen hardwood trees with palms! 

[Missi]

Live oaks need to be pruned a certain way to have a better chance of resisting hurricane winds. The beautiful sprawling look is no longer allowed in the City of Naples. 

[Laaz]

The live oaks that survive best are the ones that branch down to the ground & back up. Looks really cool & braces the tree. Takes up a lot of real-estate though.

[Joe NC]

Thanks everyone for the kind words.  I've been quite busy since, between logging my yard, and helping people clean up their yards and deal with flooded houses.  Everything for me is just starting to get back to normal.  It's been nice to see the community come together and help each other out.  However, it has not been nice seeing the ecological disaster that is the Cape Fear River.  It has been anoxic across large reaches from the serious amount of organic material (leaves, soil, sewage, hog waste...) that washed in during the flooding.  So many dead fish.  

On 9/20/2018, 12:57:31, Laaz said:

It will grow back in no time. Get out there where the tornado went through & scatter palmetto & minor seeds. Maybe plant some trachy's in there too.

 

I went rooting around in the woods where all of the large trees fell over.  I had to pull some branches away, but I uncovered some of my rogue Sabal seed throwing handy work.

Also as a bonus, I found this (as well as a bunch of mangrove shoots) on an east facing beach that was directly hit by the storm.  

Maybe it is still viable?  I'll probably put it in a bag someplace warm and see what happens.

[Ricigliano]

I feel your pain. My garden looked the same after hurricane Mathew and Irma the last 2 years. I hope a seedy recovery for all effected.