Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Aftermath

I know, beyond a doubt, that every year, without fail, mother nature will throw me a few curve balls and I'll have some damage to the gardens and containers that I nurture so lovingly and carefully thoughtout the season.  Last year we had a hurricane that blew all the leaves and buds off the brugmansias which were too big to move into the garage, then  the infamous 'Snowtober' storm that devastated my mature oak trees in the back gardens.

This year we had a couple weekends in a row during August with severe thunderstorms accompanied by dreadful straight line winds.  Yesterday, yet another front came through with strong winds and I'm glad it's time to dig into getting the containers disassembled and put away for the season because I've never had this many blow over before.  I just spent a half hour or so assessing the damage and I've got a pile of stuff to pick up so many damanged plants.  Sigh.





Interesting that you can see how the winds changed direction over the course of the day yesterday
The pot in the foreground blew down around noon and I decided to leave it until the storms were done.
The others blew down last night when the front passed through.





The Colocasia 'Thailand Giant' is completely smushed and it was huge and gorgeous...


Just a little mandevilla but for some reason this one REALLY made me sad. it was smothered with buds and that long upper stem is broken off.
I won't repeat the selection of bad language that is swirling in my brain at the moment but all you gardeners get the picture, so to speak...  Maybe I'll just leave it all and have a glass of wine?
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13 comments:

  1. Nancy StaubSeptember 19, 2012 at 6:05 AM

    I'm SO sorry Deanne! I LOVE seeing pictures of your gardens every year - but surely not this way. Wish I were closer -I'd come help you clean up. The glass of wine sounds like just the right thing. And, if one doesn't do the trick, try another. :-)

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  2. JulieSeptember 19, 2012 at 6:22 AM

    Holy Moley! That must have been some storm. What devastation! I am so sorry - your heart must be in your boots today. Is your roof o.k.? You (and Doug) must feel broken hearted today. ((hugs))

    Julie

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  3. AnonymousSeptember 19, 2012 at 6:37 AM

    well that sucks.

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  4. ksSeptember 19, 2012 at 7:31 AM

    Oh my god Deanne..that is just dreadful !

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  5. UnknownSeptember 19, 2012 at 10:52 AM

    That is indeed dreadful - we had high winds too altho it's not the first storm here (tornado a couple of weekends ago!) -- I think the wine would help, and now you have Mother Nature's invitation to start cutting things back and getting them ready for winter's ease tho. We're never ready to end the really great party - always one more great bloom or something just getting ready to pop for Summer are we? From a lurker point of view I found a couple of your photos showing the undersides and trunks of the plants to be academically intriguing, Deanne! You've got some amazingly mature plant children there. Hope you have some help getting it all back to rights and cleaned up. -- Cindy H.

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  6. Leslie's GardenSeptember 19, 2012 at 2:33 PM

    I"m exhausted just looking at the work to be done! How disheartening, so much hard work, planning and caring, then all knocked down. I agree, have TWO glasses!

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  7. outlawgardenerSeptember 19, 2012 at 3:53 PM

    How dreadful! I'm so sorry this happened to your beautiful garden! You maybe should drink the whole bottle. That way it will seem much more plausible to you that the pots simply decided to take a brief nap.

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  8. DeniseSeptember 19, 2012 at 7:33 PM

    I've got some fried plants from the heat wave but nothing to compare with this devastation. Thank god it's toward the end of the season. I think I'll join you in a glass a wine tonight to commiserate!

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  9. jobatSeptember 20, 2012 at 9:23 AM

    Deanne I'm so sorry about the devastation to your garden. I'm not a gardener but I love to see your pictures and writings, they inspire to draw and paint. I think you need to clean it up and then sit back and enjoy and double-shot of your favorite scotch! - Jo-Anne

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  10. GardenbugSeptember 20, 2012 at 10:07 AM

    Oh man!!!!!!!!!!

    Hope the wine helped.

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  11. The Sage ButterflySeptember 20, 2012 at 3:00 PM

    Goodness...those were strong winds! We had some of those storms last year but only a few this year. The wine sounds like a great idea! :)

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  12. MichelleSeptember 20, 2012 at 8:30 PM

    Heartbreaking for sure, especially with all the loving care you give them.

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  13. LayaneeOctober 10, 2012 at 5:24 AM

    Oh my. I don't blame you one bit for a few bad words. They help don't they?

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