Destruction

Destruction struck my garden on the 15th while I was relaxing at a movie with my sister Greta.  We left the movie chatting to step out into a bit of hail. We had driven less than 500 meters before it was hard to see.  On the way home we had to pull over because visibility was terrible, and I took an alternate route to avoid flash floods. I couldn't even hear Greta shouting, the hails was so loud on the van roof.

My lawn was carpeted in hail and flooded (Leo forgot two rain barrels open) when I got home. My pillow was also damp as my bedroom window was open.  However, the biggest devastation was my yard - I actually ran on a thick carpet of hail to close the rain barrel. In the morning, the hail was gone but the destruction remained.

Leaves were scattered everywhere and all the leaves still on plants had holes in them.  The hail was about pea to marble sized, and a few days later, so many of leaves are damaged that there is yellow all over my yard.  It looks like fall.  Liz says there was no hail at her house which is only 3km away, so it appears to have been fairly localized.

Here are some images from my garden - they aren't to Mike's standard since he was happily climbing mountains while I took them.

Max's play tent - blown across the half of the yard and luckily caught by the apple tree. The tunnel and the other tent were blown to the back of the garden.

 

My shredded corn and one of Max's other tents.

 Many tomatoes were knocked off the plants and a lot of tomato branches were broken. Even the tomatoes that stayed on were not great.

A sample of the rhubarb crushed by hail.  The rhubarb and the remaining apples were pulverized. I froze both for use this month and baked some of the 10 gallon pail of apples, which were covered in little round bruises.

The hardest part of the whole thing was loosing so much of the garden right as it is producing. We are currently eating:

• rhubarb
• apples
• spagetti squash
• pumpkin
• beans (three types)
• the last of the peas (yesterday)
• baby carrots and beats
• kholrabi
• two types of cucumbers
• six types of peppers
• three types of tomatoes
• all herbs (I froze a large ziploc of mint the day before the hail)
• chard, spinach and beet greens
• potatoes
• corn

On the upside, my average of 5 guests all summer long has actually resulted in less that winter grocery bills (ones for just my family) because the garden is producing so well. View all hail pictures.