Hi Donna -
Well watered, you say? LOL....you see that's part of the problem. We get all our rain from late October until early April and then it never (well hardly ever) rains from late spring through late fall.
We've had a lot of rain this year, the ground is saturated, then runoff starts, then the wind comes and down go the trees.
Most of these trees that went down were staked with pressure treated double tree stakes pounded 18" into the ground. Those poles just snapped like match-sticks.
Last year when some of the same trees went down they lay on the ground for a good two weeks with their roots exposed. The storms went on and on and finally we got out there to put them back in......they seem to almost enjoy their yearly root airation.
Life is an adventure and gardening is a big part of my adventure. Someday I WILL have big trees here. I just need to live long enough to see them! Over Christmas we drove by two houses we built in another part of the Bay area.
The first garden is now 24 years old.....the trees are awesome. Most of the plants I put in are still there and the Japanese maples are beautiful specimens. The second house we built 20 years ago also has most of the original plantings, but the trees really need pruning...I could hardly keep my hands to myself. It's a good thing the chainsaw was not along for the ride. :-)
I've rarely been concerned during any of our prior storms...but when things started falling off the mantel because the house was shaking so much, I actually was frightened and began moving things to the floor until it subsided.
An expert could explain our micro-climate better than I can, but we are at about 1000' elevation and the cold air from the Bay meets the warm air coming out of the Sacramento Valley and we are at the base of a 4000' mountain.....can you say convergence? It's a wind tunnel, plain and simple.
