Northeastern plant and tree specimens ravaged by Hurricane Sandy need not be discarded so quickly. The hope for restoration and the renewal of life when all seems lost needs to be maintained. In the United State Of America over the past year we have had a number of interesting weather events that have challenged our natural and man made environments. Too often homeowners give up rebuilding and restoring that which was destroyed or severely damaged. If you think about what they may have been through you can’t blame them.
This article will focus not only on beginning restoration and redesigning but regaining the strength to move forward with a new set of maintenance and management tools for your landscape and gardens.
You have trees destroyed, damaged, uprooted and leaning over, and now all the large damaged and downed trees have been cleaned and removed off your property. There is the possibility that you have ornamental evergreens or trees that you want to keep, if savable. Though there is one major variable that may have changed. Where you had shade or part sun you now have part shade or full sun. How will the remaining trees adapt to their new environment. Most plants unless specifically shade only will have the ability to adapt just with some transitionary dieback. The reality is those plants after years of being sheltered by the larger trees may always stress out during high sun high heat periods. The options available would be to transplant them to another area more suted to their needs or plant new trees that will recreate the old environment. Whatever you choose know that many people around the world who are devastated by natural disasters experience the same angst and ask similar questions.
The first thing after the cleanup is what is the value of fixing the remaining damaged plants. The only ones that can answer that question would be a professional arborist or landscape designer with your personal needs in mind. Once you know what has value expectations of how long a plant will take to re-establish is important. This is important because while things are restoring and redeveloping new plants and gardens may be considered. For many people after damage has occurred, money has been spent leaving a financial hole where there wasn’t one previously. This hole makes it more difficult to find and spend any additional funds. As we all know neglect brought on by lack of funds can lead to greater financial losses and even greater damage so armed with new knowledge I will help you make some choices.
We are about to enter our coldest time of year here in the northeastern part of the United State so Evergreen planting isn’t really an option. The reality here is digging into the ground at all will soon be taken off the table as a viable option for most planting. The ground hasn’t gone frozen so bulbs, perennials and deciduous trees can be installed if beds are prepared correctly and new plantings insulated enough. If your not ready to make that jump the only option is to begin pruning damaged trees, tying up evergreens in need and preparing for winter.
Throughout the remaining winter I hope you will begin budgeting and preparing for the re-establishment of your properties gardens and landscape. Simple, slow and steady. Some of the trees that came down took more then half a century to establish and here we are faced with trying to replace them. Start small and build hope for the future as the original planters did with your trees that failed due to mismanagement over the years. There are people to blame for the high number of failed trees in and around New York but the goal here is to learn from these past mistakes and prevent the further neglect of our mature trees. The easiest way to begin the restoration is by developing a pruning program for all mature Town and street trees around the Northeast. Crown reductions are in order for the majority of these trees and other then fixing the trees these programs will put people back to work who will pay taxes, contribute to our communities and start strengthening our fiscal failures. To say any more may get me in trouble so I will end here. Find a way of seeing the positive among the disenchanted and disappointed general public and know that we all need to take responsibility for the property and community in which we life.
Peace with learning ever present.