How do I recover a garden after a storm?

The instinct after a storm is to start with what looks worst, and what looks worst is almost never what is most dangerous. Working in the right order costs nothing and it is the difference between a tidy-up and a serious injury.

Safety

Step by step

1. Wait until the wind has genuinely dropped.Storms come in bands and the lull between them is not the end. Damaged trees and structures that survived the first gusts fail in the second round, and that is when people are outside underneath them.
2. Walk the garden and look up first.Before touching anything, scan for overhead hazards: power lines, hanging broken branches, split trunks, lifted fence panels, cracked glazing, loose roof material. The hazards after a storm are overhead, not underfoot.
3. Anything on or near a power line stops everything.Keep everyone well back, do not touch the object or anything in contact with it, and call the electricity network operator's emergency number. This applies whatever the object is and however small it looks.
4. Rope off anything unstable and leave it.A hung-up branch, a leaning tree, a split limb, a partly detached panel. These are under tension and release unpredictably. Mark the area, keep out of it, and get an arborist for anything at height or in a tree.
5. Clear anything blocking a drain, an exit or a neighbour's access.This comes before the plants. A blocked gully or gutter turns the next band of rain into a flood, and a blocked exit is a safety issue in its own right.
6. Photograph everything before you tidy.If there is any prospect of an insurance claim, or any question about a neighbour's tree or fence, the photographs taken before anything moved are the evidence. Take more than you think you need, including wide shots that show position.
7. Stand up and firm anything blown flat but still rooted.Herbaceous plants, tall crops, young shrubs. Ease them upright, firm the soil back around the base with your heel, water them in and stake low if needed. Doing it within a day or two makes a real difference; a week later, much less.
8. Decide about anything whose rootplate has lifted.A small plant or young shrub can be replanted — trim any torn roots, replant at the same depth, firm and water. A large tree with a lifted rootplate is a different matter and needs an arborist to assess, because it may be unstable even if it looks settled.
9. Cut torn and snapped wood back to a clean point.A ragged tear does not seal and lets decay in. Cut back to just outside the branch collar at the nearest suitable point. Keep both feet on the ground while you do it.
10. Leave shredded foliage completely alone.Leaves and soft growth stripped by wind will be replaced by the plant. Cutting adds a second injury on top of the first and achieves nothing.

Tips

• Storm-damaged plants that were staked high are the ones that snapped at the tie. If a pattern of failures follows your staking, that is the lesson from the storm.
• Check ties, stakes and supports across the whole garden afterwards, not just where damage is visible. Loosened or half-failed supports fail properly in the next storm.
• Fences and their posts should be checked at the base. A panel that survived may be sitting on a post that has cracked or rotted, and it will go next time.
• Salt-laden wind from a coastal storm damages foliage days after the storm. Rinse evergreens with clean water if you are near the coast and the wind came off the sea.
• Replanting a small lifted shrub works surprisingly well if the roots have not dried out. Get to it quickly and keep the roots covered in the meantime.

Common mistakes

• Starting with the most visually shocking damage — It is usually a flattened border, which is harmless and can wait. The hazards are overhead and the urgent problems are drains, and both get missed while people rake up leaves.
• Cutting a branch that is under tension or hung up in a tree — Stored energy releases the moment the cut goes through, in an unpredictable direction and with real force. This is a leading cause of serious injury after storms and it is entirely avoidable by calling an arborist.
• Tidying before photographing — Insurance claims and disputes about a neighbour's tree or fence both turn on evidence of what the damage was and where it came from. Once it is cleared, that evidence is gone.
• Assuming a tree that looks fine is fine — Root damage and internal splitting are not visible from the ground. A tree that has moved in a storm should be looked at, particularly if it is near a building or a boundary.

Questions people ask