By Kay S. Pedrotti Kendall Morris says she can’t really see all the trees down behind her house anymore, ‘so I can pretend, because it’s green back there — lots of little trees are growing in.’ The woman who has spent a lifetime close to the earth was devastated by last year’s tornado damage to the area around the home she shares with husband Fred. Hundreds of huge 50-to-80 foot oaks, hickories, maples and pines were snapped off or uprooted on the Morris property on Hog Mountain off Howard Road. ’I have hickory bushes now,’ Kendall says. She has replanted nearly 200 trees, thanks to an anonymous donor who bought 2,000 dogwood, sawtooth oak and loblolly pine seedlings and gave them to tornado victims who lost trees (almost everybody). No less than three tornado cats showed up at the Morrises’ after the storm: a tabby, a gray-and-white and a black-and-white. Kendall advertised for owners but no one claimed them — they’re loving and obviously happy to be with people, she notes. ’What has surprised me the most,’ she says, ‘is the wildflowers all over the place. Who knew — flowers like sunshine! Once all the trees that shaded them were gone, here come the bachelor buttons, daisies, brown-eyed susans, johnnyjumpups, poppies, violets and a bunch of others.’ She’s trying for stands of crimson clover where the ground is still somewhat bare. A new garden house is keeping her tools and helping her focus on what’s next, she says. Kendall is making a project of obtaining as many native Georgia plants as possible, particularly climbers for the deck/pergola area rebuilt after the tornado. ’I’m aiming for a little jungle over here,’ she adds.
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