I love to garden and truly miss it during the winter. Our
fruits and vegetable gardens have been spectacular the last couple of years.
Last year we had 13 tomato plants that yielded over 225 pounds of tomatoes. We
were busy harvesting and making sauce and paste through October.
All was looking good for 2014 in the garden. Tomatoes,
peppers and eggplants were in cages, green beans were running up poles, and
corn was on schedule to be knee high for Fourth of July. Then Nature hit!
We got 20 minutes of hail on June 16th. In January we don’t
get 20 minutes of hail! This hail came down in sheets. It was big, it was cold
and the temperature dropped 15 degrees so it actually accumulated on the
ground.
The shade cloth saved the lettuce crop. Who knew putting shade
cloth up for your lettuce can double when hail strikes!
Our blueberries were netted but unlike the shade cloth they
still got plummeted by the hail. Now I have blueberries with what looks to be
age spots. The flowers have a white cast on the leaves and the flowers were
blown off. The corn, the cabbage, the peppers, the tomatoes and the eggplants
were stripped of leaves and buds.
I have weathered garden hazards before like deer, teenagers,
firecrackers and toddlers but escaped with minor damage. This storm, which
1-mile down the road did not hit, almost caused me to cry! The cantaloupe and
watermelon plants just died. The pickling cucumbers are on life support. It is
times like this that I am happy I do not farm for a living!
Has nature ever devastated your garden? Do you feel my pain?
31 comments:
I do feel your pain!! I am not a great gardener (really, really miss my Dad - he was amazing!), but I do try to make my flower beds look nice and I grow a few veggies. It's finally nice out, but I started WAY too early this year and killed off a lot of my plants. It was a pricey re-do!
I have such a black thumb. I leave all the gardening to my husband!
Hail in June is crazy. I mean really crazy.
CArol
Thanks Cheryl. I have done the too early planting as well. One year with all the replants I figured my green beans were in the $8-9/pound range when all was harvested!
I know Sharon some people have a special knack.
We get heat here in northern California. Like 110 degree heat in early June. But last week we had a giant tree branch fall on our garden and my poor husband is still mourning over his 20 lost tomatoes. Seriously, mouring!
Yes Carol it was truly crazy!
Oh how sad for you! Crazy, crazy weather. Your poor crops... and poor YOU! Good luck with life-support efforts.
The devastation to my gardening is annually the difficulty of growing things in crazy Colorado. HEAT up the wazoo sometimes, snow in May (and sometimes June) others, and always, the high altitude and crappy soil. But I keep trying.
Oh Kim I feel his pain! 20 tomatoes, I mourn with him!!
Thank-you Lisa. Things are starting to perk up a bit. Gardening is always a challenge!
Oh, I do feel your pain. We had the same thing happen earlier this month -- our young plants got pummeled. It was heartbreaking.
I was left with new empathy for farmers, who have much more at stake than I do!
Lori, I agree with you, empathy for the farmers!
For the first time in a while our vegetables are doing great! We had our first tomatoes this morning.
Lucky you Janie,my mouth watered at the thought of a freshly picked tomato!
We have had such a problem this year with thunderstorms and hail! Our garden was pretty much destroyed! I have 3 tomato plants that survived because I had actually planted them in pots so I put them under the porch roof. My green beans may survive. Lettuce, carrots and potatoes don't think will survive! I feel your pain! You work so hard and it can be destroyed in minutes! It just makes you sick!
I no longer have a vegetable garden, but I know I would be upset if my hard work was dashed by the elements. Funny, we had that same hailstorm here in Pennsylvania in June. Even cars were damaged by it.
Rena we can commiserate with each other and compare notes at the end of the season. I may be buying pickling cukes at the farmers' market!
It could have been the same storm from the west! I did check the cars and they were alright. Thanks Helene.
Haralee I think it's evident you should invite me for dinner.
Shannon if any thing produces, you are on!
I'm impressed! I can't grow anything but my husband has become a real gardener. He loves it, and last summer we gave tomatoes to the whole neighborhood! Good luck!
Thanks Lois, isn't it nice to share! Everyone is so grateful.
Oh, that is sad!
I've finally got the deer problem worked out (electric fence) and I'm harvesting blueberries for the first time this year -- because I finally used deer netting. I'm taking the year off all brassicas because I need an effective solution for cabbage worms and I haven't figured it out yet.
It is always something with gardening! The deer can be a nuisance. They ate my roses in the front yard and cherries and I live in an urban area. Do they take the bus and get off? Can't help you with the cabbage worm. Slug problem, I'm your girl.
I don't garden, but my husband's grandfather in South Africa has a beautiful garden. As someone with no green thumb, I do appreciate someone with the knack.
Estelle
Thanks Estell. We do share with our non gardening friends with fresh and even some of our processed goodies. Of course sometimes the zucchini are so plentiful that cars with windows rolled down are the recipients like it or not!
Wow, that's crazy! I live in Seattle, so we have similar weather to you, and I can't ever remember it hailing like that in June. So sorry it damaged all of your hard work!
Thanks for the sympathy Lana. It was a freak thing that is for sure!
I SO feel your pain, Haralee! One year, our family suffered, not one, but two immense hailstorms. Mom's garden - all two acres of it - was completely flattened. Calves were killed in the field. My dad and two of my brothers narrowly escaped serious injury by hiding under the tractor they had been driving. We lost nearly all the windows in the house on the hail side and the siding was battered beyond repair. A hailstorm is an awesome (not the good kind), S.C.A.R.Y. thing!
Well I am a big whiner next to your story Diane!In looking up about hail storms i found they can be like hurricanes which sounds like what hit your family!
I'm so sorry Haralee! I love to garden, but have marginal skill and many mishaps - hail has happened to me too. I am always glad my livelihood does not depend upon what I grow!
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