Salvaging Your Garden After The Storm

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Where do you start? After a big storm, downed trees are the big stuff, but what lies beneath?

Beyond safety concerns, when trees and big branches fall, they can also wreak havoc in your garden. Smaller trees, shrubs, and perennials can all be ravaged by big branches landing on them, as well as heavy equipment brought in to take down broken trees.

So, when you have time to turn to your garden after the storm, see what you can salvage, prop up, or propagate. Shrubs too damaged to stay put for the moment can often be pruned back and potted up. Perennials can be dug up and divided, then replanted when the garden area is clear. If you can't replant this fall, keep the pots in a cold frame or bury them in an out-of-the way spot until spring. Many plants that seem doomed might surprise you and resprout too.

So, don't give up on your garden. What we saw from the hurricane last week is the particularly cruel power of Nature; but it also has an amazing ability to refresh with regrowth - bringing renewed hope to sustain you in rebuilding after the storm.