A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Be careful of what you wish for

Well, here I am in a Chicago suburb, and we've had the worst drought in like 100 years. I've scaled back my garden because we had our first baby in November of 2004. So I've really been focusing on one bed. I've been watering diligently and I've been wishing for some rain month after month. Well I finally got 10 minutes worth of it in the form of a micro-burst. Winds gusted up to 50 MPH, and my garden got trashed. My plumeria got blown over, as well as several of my other potted plants. They'll be ok.

I'm organic, and my soil is beautiful loose loam. The down side is that when the wind came through, all my plants got blown to a 45 degree angle. My peppers were just starting to mature. I've got eggplant on the vine. My 20 ft trellis was covered with ornamental gourds got toppled over onto the tomatillos and the eggplant. I think the potatoes and sweet potatoes were relatively un-scathed. I was out there trying to salvage things until 10:30pm.

I took some pictures when I pulled garlic a few weeks ago, and I'll take pictures of the aftermath and post the before and after pictures. It just goes to show you how fickle mother nature can be. :p

You got rain? Sheesh...nothing here in S. Il since dennis. It blew through with a fury too - and lots of our stuff is on a diagonal too (other than the glads that were already a bit slanted )

geesh...sounds like you got some major mini storm. Sorry to hear about your poor garden - I know how heartbreaking it must be

PAR_Gardener,
I know your heart ache well.....
Boy do I ever...
Especially with the nice dirt and everything
just goes sideways...
Some of my 7ft+ corn is sending out second rows
of stablizer roots it's been so windy here in
"Wind~Alley"

But I know how frustrating it is...
**I often think and wonder if I would have made it
as a pioneer in the "Pioneer Days", the work end
of it I would have been okay with, but the dissappointment and catastrophy end of it...are hard to phathom....

But don't let it get you down....
Cause it'll just help you think of new and better ways to make your garden better for the years to come...*and sturdier!*

Congrats on that wee~one!!!

We have had more rain this spring than we get over the whole year in the space of a few days, our little 6 inch creek that is great for paddleing in, rose over 14 feet in 24 hrs.

I managed to not get any damage during the last storm. My corn was looking good and I just sure it would be blown down.

A lot of the area around here was not so lucky.

It is so sad when you get the much needed rain in such angry form. Hope you are able to get everything upright and replanted.

hi PAR, I can really relate. I didn't plant much this year because I had to go to work right at planting time, then what little I did plant didn't come up due to no rain. I have only a few plants left this year and most came up from my seeds that dropped last fall by their self. In a way I'm glad I didn't get anything planted, it's been an awfully dry year, I'm hoping for better weather next year.

Gee Par, what do you plant when you're not scaled down? You've got a lot of stuff going there.

**I often think and wonder if I would have made it
as a pioneer in the "Pioneer Days",

Have you ever WOMEN'S DIARIES OF THE WESTWARD JOURNEY by Lillian Schlissel? The answer is "no", I don't think we could have made it.

I know I'd never have made it. I do my laundry by hand and it takes three days. If I had to add preserving all the fruits & veggies to take care of 10 months of the year where there isn't fresh stuff as well as planting and taking care of it while it's growing. I'm already far past what I could do and I haven't beaten my first rug or dealt without airconditioning during the summer. Nah, couldn't do it.

I wish that I had a picture of the giant willow tree limb that flattened my garden last year, it would make you feel better It was 3 days before my daughters graduation party too... aaarrgghhhh!

Hopefully the rest of you will see some rain soon. We were pretty dry here in SE Michigan through spring and most of the summer but in the past 2-3 weeks we've gotten nearly 6 inches of rain according to my gauge (a cake pan I leave on the back porch)
Hang in there!

John