Well thank goodness you, your family and your house are OK. So sorry about the trees and the loss of shade that will take years to replace. I imagine you will get very creative creating shade over the next few years. Glad you are OK but what a home coming that was!

What a mess to come home to. All those large trees gone so quickly would be upsetting. But it looks like you still have a good amount of trees left, and maybe you can make use of some more sunlight. But, yeah, not nice of Mother Nature.

Oh my, good thing you missed that wind...

wow, that is impressive loss of the trees! Were they unhealthy in any way? are you planning to do something with that wood?

There are pine beetles here. This has been one of the wettest summers we’ve ever had; the ground was saturated before hurricane Florence dumped 8 inches a few weeks ago then the additional 5 inches from Michael and the straight line winds just brought them down. Our county had 90,000 power outages! We are 600 miles from the Florida panhandle!

oh my..you must have been shocked when you saw the damage :-( ..what a blessing that your house and more importantly your family are safe..be careful working (or just walking) out there..and it's great that your new trees are fine..

Damn. Fires, winds, floods. Sure keeps a girl on her toes! You WILL get thru this.

Hang in there,

-Babka

Good that you had been on vacation and nothing happenend to the house. That looks like an awful lot of work and it will not be easy to replace the shade of the big trees. I hope in the end there is a positive effect to this,too.

Holy crap! So glad no one was hurt, and also great there's no damage to your home, Kathy. I hope the cleanup goes as well as can be!

Ou my. I’m glad you and house are fine.

Steve, I like those ideas... wondering how to make lemonade out of this "gift"

My daughter had wedding at the foresty fancy retreat, a week before the wedding major storm torn up loads of trees and caused lots of changed plans. All those uprooted mighty trees made for phenomenal wedding pics though...

So sorry for the garden loss, but so happy you and your family are ok!

So thankful family and house are safe. What a lot of work to come home to.

Not related to hurricane,, but we have had torrential rains 5 days a week for last 2 months. I've never seen anything like it. Sometimes standing water and ground so saturated, cannot stand on slope without sliding. But still very lucky.

Here are some ideas

Here is a link Wood ideas

Seems like I’ll have plenty of wood to work with! Thanks for the ideas., The tree guy came and said what a mess it was but he had to help those with trees on their houses first. It hit our county hard. 90,000 without power and the whole thing happened quickly on Thursday afternoon. I am lucky and grateful.

So glad you weren't among the injured or had really severe devastating damage!

Happy that you and you home are unharmed! Sorry about the trees. After the cleanup, you’ll have the winter to plan your garden alterations. Maybe it will be an opportunity in the long run?

Unfortunately, you will doubtless lose some of your hostas and other plants. Not from the storm, but from unavoidable damage done by the cleanup crew. Once you are completely cleaned up and you can assess what is a total loss and what can be saved, please let me know, and I will send you a couple of hostas to help replace your losses.

Dhaven, how nice of you! I’m thinking the best thing to do before the professionals come in is to dig up all at risk hostas and heel them in someplace safe.

What a shock that would have been to come home to such a mess! I am glad that the house and you were safe! It is good that you have time to move some hostas and plants before the trees are cleaned up. Maybe the clean up can be done when the plants are dormant?

I would recommend that you dig up any special hostas, but please be careful--those leaning trees are called 'widow makers' for a reason. Completely downed trees are usually safer, but even those can roll or shift unexpectedly. Anything that's not flat on the ground should not be approached.

If you have someplace to heel them in, that would be ideal. If not, most hostas will survive a winter (or 2 or 3) with a plastic grocery bag around the rootball and attached dirt. Very large hostas can go in garbage bags or contracter bags, but avoid anything that's black, it may heat up too much. You should be able to find white bags fairly easily.

Bagged hostas should be kept in a very shady area, and wrap the handles fairly snugly right above the crown. The leaves will dry up and fall off, but leaving the bag slightly open helps prevent rot or other unfortunate things.

such devastation. How is everyone holding up now?

i one know how this works but is such a nature Desaster covered by your homeowners insurance? I hope so!

I've mentioned this on other posts but in case you haven't seen it..Saturday was very windy here..a falling branch (6 ft long broomstick thickness) fell on my head!..I was shocked and for a second was thinking "what happened?"..could've been terrible but I'm fine..you might wear a bike helmet or hardhat when you're out..

Work week is over! Time to think about the mess outside. Thanks for all the warnings, well-wishes and suggestions.

Claudia, the insurance only pays for damage to property, which we don’t have, but that’s a good thing!

I was trying to dig up Spartacus, but the tree leaning over it was in the way and discretion became the better part of valor, so I gave up. Good advice, dhaven!

And, Anne, there is a two inch diameter dead broken off pine branch sticking out of the ground that I can’t budge! It’s like the sword in the stone. Hardhat is a good idea!

NHL, we had another two inches of rain today and coolish temps, the plants are so happy with this years abundant moisture! It’s like a bunch of drunks at a party, they’re not going away! The trees won’t even change colors! I’m hoping dormancy is approaching but not to worry , the tree company can’t get here until mid November and then only to drop everything on the ground.

windymess, I’ll be chainsawing all winter, but I have been wondering what it’s going to look like when the mess is gone.

Risky Business. We‘ll see how he pulls through next year.

Yikes!! What a mess to come home to. Like other, I'm so glad your family is safe and sound. Do you have a wood burning fireplace or stove?

Kathy..I know what you mean with limbs so stuck in the ground they won't budge..I had one that needed a shovel to dig it out!..you might need a bulldozer haha..it makes me tired to see the pics of the damage to your property..I work hard to keep our yard somewhat tidy..you have such a big job ahead but you sound positive about getting started and dealing with it..do you use the chainsaw yourself?..if so you're braver than I am..I've asked my husband "do you want me to try the chainsaw?..he said "no" lol..I'm a klutz..seeing that pic of smashed Risky Business made me think "awww poor liitle thing"..one bright note..you can clean up while the garden's down for the winter and have a fresh start when spring comes..

Anne, I guess I’m going to learn to use a chainsaw. I‘m thinking big bonfire for New Year’s Eve, Donna. Pine isn’t supposed to be burned in a fireplace.

If the tree company can't come until November, I wonder whether most of the hostas will not be harmed due to the fact that they will be dormant(?). In fact, could it be possible for the tree company to come later in the season? Of course if they have to dig out branches, then they may damage some plants. That is scary! We will be replacing our fence next month. Both my neighbor and I have gardens right up to this fence. Fortunately for me, the machine that digs the posts will have to go on my neighbor's property. But I am worried about the plants---hopefully dormant by then---being trampled on or the soil getting compacted. We never know whether the ground will be wet and mucky.