Typhoon hits Shadowlands (again)
By ptarotuos
8 comments
Dear All,
Talk about extreme gardening! We have already had everything this year — or at least I thought we had. Yesterday a typhoon (hurricane) struck us pretty much full-on. The house, being reinforced concrete (unusual in Japan) stood up well, but the garden took a pounding. I was in Tokyo staying overnight on business, but came back this evening to find a scene of carnage. We lost the top 15ft of our Norwegian Spruce — just snapped clean off (see picture with my two little monsters). So the shape is now very strange and I’ll have to think about what I can do to remedy that. It was growing so well too, and the kids called it the Christmas Tree. Feels like one step forwards, two steps back!
Elsewhere in the gardne the momiji (mountain maples) took a pounding with most suffering limb snapping. The driveway is a mess. The one good thing is that the apple trees are fine. Unusually I staked them as per the book, firmly (what I thought was overkill) and this action has been vindicated. Not a leaf out of place despite a hurricane battering them.
So, more work clearing up the debris scheduled for the weekend. It’s times like this that I remember the benign English climate with great affection and feel like something of an extreme gardener rather than a practitioner of the trug-arts of Miss-Marple like sedantry.
Oh, and did I mention the main road (the only road) to our house has been closed due to a massive landslide? My commute to work is now 4 hours rather than the usual 3! But the hydrangeas are almost in flower….
Best,
ptarotuos
20 Jun, 2012
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Comments
sorry you had all that devastation, sounds like a lot of work but im glad to see that your two beautiful children are fine
20 Jun, 2012
Oh Ptaro and just when you were getting back on top of things, I guess we have to be thankful that it was only the trees, although the landslide is a bit of a beggar obviously so I hope that gets cleared for you without anymore sliding, I hope its calmer for you now...
Its good to see your children, they look like two little poppets posing there, no doubt as with all chidren they can be little imps at times, lol....
20 Jun, 2012
Lovely children. Enjoy them whilst they are young.
20 Jun, 2012
Sorry about the destruction must be awful for you .......weather can do so much damage :((
Adorable monsters though :)))
20 Jun, 2012
Thanks everyone for the comments, especially about the kids. I think they are adorable, but then I would!
On my 1.5 hour detour drive to the station today (seems the landslide was quite serious as the main road remains closed), I came across the Hakone Flower Garden, which I'd never heard of: perhaps they sell the odd plant too!
Best wishes,
Peter
20 Jun, 2012
would you be able to visit it and take some photos to show us please?
best wishes to you all
21 Jun, 2012
There you go Peter, you were meant to have a detour just to find the Garden, I hope you get the chance to visit it soon.....
22 Jun, 2012
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Oh gosh!. Such a shock for you
. Even here last week we had 'autumnal lows 'off the atlantic, we had a big branch down off a horse chestnut tree that was surrounded by undamaged trees....very odd weather indeed this year
20 Jun, 2012