Stacey's Box Elder
I hope everyone is okay after Hurricane Irene! My heart goes out to all of those who suffered damage and are without power. All things considered we fared quite well. We didn’t loose power (which is a small miracle given the number of trees down in the area). We did get some water in the basement and I spent a good part of the night using a wet vac to keep it at bay. I was really afraid that we would lose power and then the water would keep seeping in from the slab and get out of control. We also spent Saturday lifting up everything that we could in the basement to minimize the potential damage. Our hot water heater and furnace each sit on 4″ cmu blocks (giving us a little bit of wiggle room). The most water we have had in the past is about 1″ but with the extremely high water table right now I was VERY nervous (before the hurricane this was already the wettest August ever recorded in Philadelphia). In the end I vacuumed out about 5 wet canisters full of water. I guess it may be time to bite the bullet and look into a french drain system for around the foundation, a sump pump (with battery backup) and a waterproofing layer on the concrete slab.
The yard fared quite well, only a few broken branches. We have a lot of droopy plants (especially the Rose of Sharon) that I spent some time hacking away at carefully pruning yesterday. Unfortunately Stacey lost the back half of her large box elder tree near the garage.
All of the rain has allowed some plants to do amazing (including the weeds). I spent a good part of yesterday trying to tame the weeds in the front yard! 5 large bags of weeds and Rose of Sharon cuttings and the front yard looks quite a bit better (although still in need of some serious love).
Droopy Rose of Sharon (and my neighbor's ugly fence) before trimming
These Butterfly Bushes took a bit of a beating. I still need to trim this area.
The back shade garden has been looking so lush with all of the rain
The pumpkins are also enjoying all of the rain
