Carl, sorry to hear about the destruction. We fared better than expected here in Providence since the storm went further west than originally predicted. Good for us but not for you and NYC. Most damage in RI was near the coastal areas as you might imagine. Just a thought but have you considered a water garden in that lower area? A pool and bog and moisture loving plants can be very attractive, and at least you won't be fighting nature.

surely, I can't be the only person who thought that a pot ghetto was some sort of illegal gardening activity.

Oh Carl I'm so sorry! That is heartbreaking!

Oh, that's too tough to take, I'm so sorry! Yes, a water garden would be nice, but ... I hope you haven't lost too much.

My sister's in Mendham, NJ, and while they didn't have flooding (they're on top of a hill) they did have a lot of wind damage to some big old trees.

We had very little rain - less than an inch, I think. The only casualty in my garden that I've spotted so far is my biggest Franklinia altamaha. I'm a little steamed that the horrid old silver maples that are on town-owned street-side land came through unscathed while this lovely specimen, right nearby and in full bloom, got creamed.

To be honest, this Franklinia already lost a couple of good sized branches this year; I think that was partly because it was planted (about 5 years ago) in too-rich soil, and partly because of all the rain we had this spring.

Carl,
I was sorry to read about the destruction to your garden. If you are of the mind that misery loves company you might find comfort in fellow Garden State author Ken Druse who wrote about big time flood destruction to his garden in his book "The Passion for Gardening" and briefly in the NY Times back in 2005?

From Ken Druse "When Bad Things Happen to Good Gardens"I we have no choice but to deal with what nature and sometimes neighbors dole out. It doesnt help me, in the immediate aftermath, to think of the additional light that will now fall on the beds when a tree comes down. And I cant imagine someone looks with glee at a fresh concrete wall looming over their city garden and thinks, "oh goodie, a new garden opportunity". I take no solace from a well-meaning friends assurance of future "planting opportunities". Wounds to the garden are too often wounds to me as well. But as I cart away the debris and prune the stubs so the plants can heal more quickly, I more quickly heal myself as well. Whether I like it or not, the garden is changed; and, eventually, I remember that change is what a garden is all about.

Mother nature sure can rip off the band aide and force some garden editing. So sorry.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ken Druse Real Dirt

kt - thanks for the Ken Druse article. . .he certainly helps to put garden
catastrophes in perspective. . .the only difference might be that he KNEW
the inherent dangers of gardening on an island, while I, on the other hand,
spent 17 years developing this garden with no advance warning of the red-
neck neighbor who would move in (and built an 11' foot wall!) or the apartment
complex down the block which failed to maintain their gutters, downspouts
and storm drains until EVERYTHING failed simultaneously. . .

Not to worry: I've licked my wounds and surely I'll bounce back. . .right after
the 5" of water gets pumped out of my basement. . .another first!

Carl

I'm so sorry to hear of the loss of your garden, Carl. I hope the waters recede soon.

I *wish* I had an 11 foot wall between me and my red neck neighbors, but that's another story...

My whole state suffered similar water damage, although we (and our gardens) escaped by some miraculous stroke of luck. Many houses and roads washed away and about a half dozen towns stranded.

Spedigrees: Normally, the idea of an 11' wall between me and a redneck
neighbor sounds appealing. . .but here's the catch: the town actually let
him build a 5' stone retaining wall, SO THAT HE COULD RAISE HIS
PROPERTY GRADE LEVEL alongside my lower garden ! A month later,
Mr. Red Neck gets a permit to put in an additional six-foot fence on TOP of the stone wall - somehow, the town clerk failed to "notice" that there was a stone wall there already. So: guess where his drainage goes? Not into the fancy three-car garage that I now gaze UP at ! Now, I can just hear all
you creative gardeners out there enthusiastically suggesting vines,
climbing roses, etc. . . except that the retaining wall (by intention) slopes slightly AWAY from the property line, which means the wooden fence on
top is a good 18" onto HIS property. . .which means I can't touch it.

Catch 22. . .

So what? You honestly don't have Virginia Creeper, wild forms of clematis, moonflowers, or other naturally occuring vines in your part of the world?

One of my mottos is that you can plant anything you want around here, anywhere you want, just so long as it's small enough, and while doing it you are dressed like a squirrel.

Well, after being without power and water for four days I don't really give a flying fig about my pot ghetto. I just want to flush my friggin toilet!

That being said, pot ghetto, what was left outside, survived - and thankfully, didn't go flying and hurt anyone/anything. Garden is a mess, $200+ worth of organic, grass-fed beef in the freezer is ruined, along with all other food in freezer and fridge, sink is piled with unwashed dishes, hampers piled with unwashed laundry, DH (also unwashed) can't sleep without his apnea mask, but the basement sump pump worked on the back-up battery, thank goodness.

I just keep hoping to get power and water back. Sure hope it's soon. Could really use a shower.... sure co-workers think so too...

Sorry to hear about your mess Carl. Will commiserate more when I'm not at work sneaking on the internet!

Hope everyone is well after the storm!
Dee

Oh Dee--short of having been flooded out of house and home, yours is the direst story I have heard. We lucked out and were only powerless 12 hours, which is long enough to realize that living off the grid is no fun at all. Hope you get back on line ASAP!

Dee, I figured you were not posting because you were without power.

For your vicarious enjoyment, I'm giving the link to our local power company's outage map. Our side of the river, the east side, is pretty much cleaned up. The west side had much more serious flooding. They expect to get the major work done there before Sept 4.

Here is a link that might be useful: Central Hudson outage map

I'm so sorry Dee for the 3rd world conditions at your place, and also for the loss of your beef and other frozen goods. :-( :-( :-(

FroofyCat, you're too funny!!

And Carl, I'm not sure if I'd want to trade neighbors with you or not. Yours sound like doozies too.

I hope you get your power back soon, Dee, and get to take a lovely long shower.

I was talking to the attendant at the dump/transfer station yesterday. It's open Saturday and Wednesday so this was the first day after Irene hit on Sunday. She said the place was swamped that morning with people mostly dumping spoiled food and other debris. Apparently there was a lot of power outage scattered around the region; some areas, like mine, with just a flicker or two, others totally out.

Claire

Dee and Carl,
If you could share with us now one month later. Have your gardens begun to recover? Have the insurance companies come to your rescue? Have any of your plants begun to recover in unusual ways?

Just checking in to see how things are going a month following Irene...
We were without power for 6 days. Dee, I heard and understood your frustration. After a while, cooking on the gas grille (we were lucky to have it) gets old, just as I dared to think that, we ran out of gas and there was NO grille! The no flushing/no shower was the worst! All candles were gone by the end of 6 days, not to mention any food that had been in the freezer. Lost the top half of several 60' trees, but no damage to our property. Neighbors just down the road had a three trunk tree go through their house, taking out their bathroom.
I initially posted to say that I have never had such profuse blooms of morning glories or perennial (branching) Maximillian Sunflowers as we had this year about 7-10 days after Irene came through.
Also, I usually see some color on our trees by October 1st... a few isolated leaves is all as of today.
Dee and Carl, I wish you good things after all you went through.
Susan

Hi Katy and Susan. My garden did recover somewhat. It never really thrived (throve??) again, at least annuals and veggies. They recovered enough to be okay, but not great. Perennials seemed to do a bit better. But the rain and cool temps since Irene didn't help things much. Actually, I think the rain in the following weeks did more damage than Irene did!

But, there is always next year, right?

Susan, thanks for the good thoughts. Really, I can't complain at all. We were inconvenienced for a week by not having water, but in reality it could have been much worse - and indeed there are many others who did have it much worse. Your neighbors, for instance. Now that's bad, having a tree crash through your house! I got off easy - a bit dirty maybe, lol, but easy!

Dee