Sandy Aftermath

Well, for the third successive year we’ve been hit by a storm that’s done extensive damage to our gardens and landscape.

Each storm has been different in terms of where it came from and what it did. But for sure Sandy has been the worst.

Prior to Sandy’s arrival I’d had many people comment that once again there was just a lot of hype and the storm really wasn’t going to be that bad. The afternoon that the storm hit I have to admit that I was ever so slightly dubious as I watched the sustained winds in Southampton being barely 10 miles per hour with gusts only in the teens. But after six in the evening, as the storm approached the Jersey shore, the winds picked up and for the next 10 or so hours we were pummeled.

Like several other hurricanes that have hit us over the years we were on the dry side of Sandy, with some areas getting only half an inch of rain. But this was both a blessing and a curse. Dry hurricanes carry a lot of salt spray off the ocean and the bays, and with no rain to wash it off the salt can seriously burn plant foliage and the needles of evergreens. Aside from the issues related to flooding, this is where we are going to see the problems, though they may not be manifest until next year.

Salt spray, either from the ocean or the bays (and in the case of Sandy we had both) desiccates plant tissues and essentially depletes them of water. Had the storm happened just a month earlier we would have seen all the leaves on our trees brown and crisp just hours after the storm, but in this case most of the leaves had already started to turn and fall.

Beware that if you live where the easterly or southeasterly winds brought salt spray to your trees, this might not be the best of years to compost those leaves as the salt will contaminate your compost, killing the vital organisms that it needs to thrive.

As for our privets, the burning may be more obvious as this shrub tends to hold its foliage on the plant much longer into the fall. Hopefully, we are well enough into the fall that any burned privet foliage will simply fall off the shrubs and it will be cool enough so that new foliage growth isn’t stimulated. A new flush of growth this late in the season could deplete the shrubs of stored carbohydrates that enable it to survive the colder winter months.

Evergreen trees, such as pines, are another issue. The needles on pines and a number of other similar trees have a waxy protective coating that can provide some protection from salt desiccation. This is why trees such as the native pitch pine do so well in the pine barrens.

Nonetheless, it would have helped to spray newly planted evergreens with fresh water right after the hurricane in order to reduce any potential for salt damage. It might be too late this time but remember this advice after future storms. And if you spray your evergreens with an anti-desiccant for wind and sunburn protection before the winter, washing off any accumulated salt on the needles is critical or these sprays will seal the salt against the needles, probably causing long-term damage.

The next issue is salt that reached the ground. This happens either from flooding as the ocean breached the dunes or as the bays flooded surrounding lowlands. Salt damage can also occur to lawns from salt spray as well and saltwater flooding usually spells doom for high quality lawns. Again, had Sandy had a good rain component this would not be so much of an issue but this didn’t happen.

In some areas on the boundary of Shinnecock Bay there was still a foot of flood water three days after the storm, while properties on the north shore of Shinnecock and Peconic bays had extensive saltwater flooding from the storm surge and wind-driven tides. This water has probably damaged lawns, perennials, trees and shrubs.

While the lawn damage is obvious within hours of the water receding, damage to other plants is still taking place but won’t be obvious until next spring. At that time, the damaged plants won’t leaf out. Similar results will arise in the summer when the damaged root systems won’t be able to soak up adequate water.

Where the saltwater was not flushed out of the root zone, and with a high water table, remediation may have been nearly impossible. In some cases the addition of perlite to the soil can ameliorate this damage but I suspect that the worst is already done and is mostly irreversible.

Keep in mind though that native and other salt-tolerant plants have a great defense system for this saltwater intrusion. We often see pitch pine, beach plum, goldenrod, Artemisia, beach peas, Hudsonia, beach grass, swamp mallow, Montauk daisy, rosa rugosa and a number of other plants just shrugging off the salt and coming back to life in the next season. But the copiously planted hydrangeas are not at all tolerant and once submerged or inundated by saltwater they rarely recover or survive.

There is some work that you can do right now though. If you have trees and shrubs that have damaged branches they should be cleaned up and pruned right away. Jagged edges caused by split branches and limbs should be cleanly pruned to prevent decay and to encourage healing.

The same is true of rose canes that may have been damaged by the wind. The canes should be pruned back to firm growth. Usually we would leave roses alone at this time of the year, not wanting to prune and possibly stimulate new growth, but this late in the season it will be more important to clean the canes by making smooth cuts instead of leaving any jagged edges.

Lastly, don’t feed anything. You may think that giving a plant an extra boost after all this trauma will do it good. To the contrary, feeding now will cause much more harm and little, if any, good.

Sorry for all the bad news and I hope you fared well. But look at it this way, only five months until spring when we start things all over again and hope for the better. During the off months maybe it’s time to do some reading on salt-tolerant plantings.

Keep growing.