Hurricane Ian Slideshows
Hurricane Ian Before & After
These are Our Garden’s true life story. The angles might be slightly off in some, might show a little wider shot and such, it was all I could do to take photos of the damage after the storm. It wasn’t until later I looked for comparison shots from the photos I had been taking for the blog before the storm. They’re very close.
At least the coleslaw looked green for a couple of days, view coming out of our lanai door 
Back side of the Traditional Vegetable and Herb Garden, after the top of the downed Hong Kong orchid tree’s canopy was chopped off and removed 
Fountain and bulb garden. Promise, it’s there under the tree. 
Obviously the bottom is a much wider shot. The right half of the bottom shows the top. This was probably the same wind gust that took out the top of the south american tree 
Cage Match collapse. It was both an implosion and an outward mangling 
While this is one giant planting now, it moves through a whole fence line. There’s a 7′ tunnel with 5, two-story White Bird of Paradise trees, super heavy, down on top of it 
The top is sticks 
Dragon Fruit Cactus and Bougainvillea collapsing into the old satellite dish we turned into sort of a work gazebo 
Red Lobster Claw Heliconia. See the flower down in the Japanese Maple pot at the bottom 
The new berm planted this year, flooded with the Schefflera pushed into my new path & plantings 
White Bird of Paradise gone. Don’t worry, I planted it somewhere else, much shorter. 
Hong Kong Orchid Tree I graduated from the nursery and planted at the beginning of the summer. Marigold and Zinnia ground cover. 
Planties survived Ian, flooding, and my brother cutting the anniversary tree. They did not survive my neighbor shoving his full grown Queen Palm over his fence into Our Garden. My son kindly cut it up for me. I replanted the head along another fence line. They shouldn’t get to enjoy it again.
Hurricane Ian
I’m not going to lie, I dislike looking at these. We’re fully into the restoration, but still. These are a wider view of Ian’s effects.
At least the coleslaw looked green for a couple of days, view from our lanai door 
Cage match collapse. I realize this is so big it’s hard to tell. See the dragon fruit flowers. 
Back 1/3 of the yard completely flooded 
Cage match tunnel collapse 
Shell circle. Yeah it’s there. 
Brick ornamental wall next to the fountain, that’s the pillar, pot on the ground 
Behind the new shed 
Back fence line, the neighbors just removed their panels, pushed their old post further into our fence and put up a new fence. 
Wind pulled the Schefflera out of the ground in the opposite direction 
Tree and shrub nursery, promise, under the coleslaw 
Trained arch, now just some mangled branches blocking the door 
Star jasmine down, iron trellis and all 
Flattened Red Lobster Claw Heliconia 
Old growth slash pines, looking pretty bare after doing their jobs, wind breaks for the intact pool cage 
Back side of the Traditional Vegetable and Herb Garden, after the top of the downed Hong Kong orchid tree’s canopy was chopped off and removed 
Front side of the Traditional Vegetable and Herb Garden, covered in branches and slaw, roots from the tree up 10-12″ 
East side of the Traditional Vegetable and Herb Garden after sitting in water for a week 
That’s one of the Kiwi on the left, more nursery trees at the bottom, thoroughly beaten by the red ginger 
Japanese Lantern Hibiscus crunched by a south american tree branch 
Behind the Traditional Vegetable and Herb Garden, see the mangled arch, dang 
Magically levitating Hong Kong orchid tree trunk, it’s actually completely down on the other side, 
Dawson’s Tree, a female Hong Kong Orchid Tree, on it’s side after Hurricane Ian 
Sleeping Beauty’s torn maze, continued. Yes, this extended all the way over and took down the fence 
So much wood. Sleeping Beauty’s torn maze deconstructed. 
Fountain and bulb garden. Promise, it’s there under the tree 
All the dragon fruit cactus and bougainvillea falling into the work area under the old satellite dish we have set up as a kind of work gazebo 
I swear I secured the gorilla cart. It’s fine, very durable. On the other side of the gazebo collapse 
My neighbor’s mature queen palm he shoved over his fence into Our Garden. I have pictures of it sitting on his fence. Storms bring out the best and worst in humanity 
Scrub oak doing its wind break job, down on our far back fence, nestled snugly in the center of our indigenous cabbage palm orchard, over the top of the palmetto scrub (can’t see that at all) 
Bougainvillea repositioning itself onto the brick patio. Its required to grow over my son’s head, or get cut 
See Hannah’s plant bloomn’ away center right, tree down on top of it and everything 
Do you see the stick? It’s actually the new Hong Kong orchid tree I grew from seed and graduated from the nursery this year, all the ground cover flowers gone, gone, long gone 
Other side of the tunnel collapse, false nut tree down, yea. 
Hong Kong Orchid, branches taken to the curb, logs for boarders, peat, and art 
Not in a flood zone, we had standing water all the way up to the brick walkway. Simple rainwater flooding. 
Flooding left a layer of silt, fertile stuff. Wish it wasn’t covering the shell circle. We don’t grow anything there but weeds 
Boarders from my new berm floated to a new location. These are logs.