Seeds and Ice Storm

[Kristl Walek]

A concerned gardening friend called from Edmonton this morning to see
if my power was back yet. In trying to paint a picture for him of the
past two weeks the one I knew he could understand most clearly was
that I had not thought about plants once in this entire time period,
except in crying as I lay in the cold hearing the 4 acres of maples
crash and collapse around me.

Our hydro was turned on last evening. I made hot tea after eating at
shelters for 10 days, slept in my warm bed after cold floors and army
cots and find I have no tolerance left for the cold.

Walking the property today with the first of many professionals giving
quotes on the trees I had to rush back indoors at regular intervals to
warm up even though it was only -10C. My last night in the house
(before we were forced to abandon ship after 9 days of only a
fireplace) it was -38C (with wind chill).

The quote was for roughly $20,000 and it was a bare bones estimate-
covering only 25% of the trees that had to be cut down and leaving the
chipping and clean up to us. It will be hard to say good-bye to these
old, old sugar maples....

There are other losses equalling 5 times that of the trees. Insurance
will not cover anything except the food in the freezer. I have lost my
appetite.

And as I read all the glowing reports of the NARGS seed exchange I
realized that my order,  between the Postal Strike and the Ice Strike,
still lay on the dining room table, covered with candle drippings and
receipts from emergency wood deliveries.

I say in my seed catalogue this year "We are tenacious gardeners, here
in the North. We have to be. We keep going nothwithstanding the
floods, drought, wildlife and last, but not least, the long, cold
winters."  Today I do not feel tenacious. Although my house is again
warm, the office building has crashed due to a power surge. The stacks
of seed orders are getting larger. Arisaema and Hellebores are begging
to get transplanted. Sometime this week I will take an evening for
myself and get the flats ready. I want to start thinking about plants
again.

Kristl Walek
Gardens North Perennial Seeds
N. Gower, Ontario
Zone 4