Well it started with a loud thunderclap at around 1:00 yesterday afternoon. The black clouds rolled in and it hailed, continuously for about 40 minutes depositing almost 2" of hail on the grass and leaving 3-4" of standing water in many parts of the garden. Today, it looks like a madman got loose with a weed eater and a high pressure washer.
I'm used to hail storms in June when I still have 3 good months of growing season ahead to catch up. This is the first time, or at least the first time in the 11 years I have lived here, that I've seen a storm like this in August. I expect the first frost in about 5 weeks, so I'm probably not going to have a chance to employ my new pressure canner and the 6 cases of mason jars I've laid by...
The peas and onions survived. The squash looks rough. The tomatoes and peppers are flayed down to twigs and denuded of blossoms and baby fruit. The potatoes look like they got hit with a sudden massive CPB invasion. Corn is shredded and so are the beans. The lettuce, beets and chard all look like a freshly made compost pile.
I coulda' been playing golf all summer instead...
My new answering machine message: Hello and thank you for calling. We have been members of the NRA since we were old enough to take communion. As a Christian family, we have no interest in your robotic messages of hatred, bigotry and fear. We choose to vote for love, hope, and change, and we hope you will join us. Have a great day!.
Condolences. I hope you are able to salvage something. The farmers around here sometimes get completely hailed out of their year's crop. Must be a devastating feeling.
How's the rest of your stuff -- car, for instance? Did your neighbors gardens get hit, too, or was it "hit and miss?"
Oh no! I'm so sorry! I live in fear of The Great White Combine and count my blessing every year it doesn't come. We got some rain turned to golf balls a few weeks back. I stood watching them bounce across the yard, praying and pleading for it to stop. The destruction only went on for a minute or so, so the damage wasn't too bad. I'm so sorry for you though. I hope some things recover for you.
Posts: 796 | Location: Zone 3/4 North Dakota | Registered: August 12, 2005
That happened to me one year on the first of August. Things got shredded pretty bad. In a couple of weeks the cukes had recovered somewhat and were blooming and the corn continued to make ears even though the leaves were shredded. Then it hailed again. Same thing, everything shredded.
That year the harvest was pretty skimpy, but I did get some potatoes, and other root crops. The beans had already given me their harvest when it hit. The corn somehow made good ears in spite of the damage. Cukes and squash were a bust.
Planting a garden is always a gamble. Lots of variables. In all my years of gardening though I always get a harvest. Something will always make it in spite of weather, or bugs or whatever. I guess that is why we plant a good variety of things.
Sorry to hear about your damaged garden, but don't despair, you may get a few things yet.
Plant a little seed...........
Posts: 813 | Location: N. Utah Zone 4/5 Elev. 5000' | Registered: April 02, 2003
I'm so sorry! The few times it has rained here I have felt compelled to yell at the sky: "Thank you! But no hail, no hail, no hail! And please no power outages!"
I hope the pain wears off by next Spring.
Ria
Gardening with the Gods in Colorado
Posts: 321 | Location: Zone 5 | Registered: April 09, 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LAUS DEO, Where ever I go, there I am. ..... major at nwi dot net ..... Zone 6a, Eastern Washington, sagebrush high desert, Columbia plateau.
Posts: 2495 | Location: Eastern Washington State, zone 6a. | Registered: December 13, 2004
