When Nature Comes to Play... Havoc

My garden right after planting.

Monday (May 30, 2011) night a storm system that stretched from Nebraska to Canada made it's way through my neck of the woods.  The notorious North Dakota wind turned into a freight train, the rain pounded, sirens went off, power was lost and my family headed to our basement for shelter for the night.

The morning light brought me out to survey the damage.  (See these and more photos on The Full Circle Gardener Facebook page.)  I found a large branch of our willow tree laying on the ground and my new greenhouse lodged in the back fence.  I was thankful to find basically no damage to my greenhouse, but a mess of dirt and plants were plastered to the walls.  That about brought me to tears. :(  Thankfully, the garden did well.  I had to re-set up the structures, but plants were not damaged.

I spent several hours Wednesday cleaning out the greenhouse and figuring out what I could salvage.  I lost all of my poor peppers that I had started months ago.  Thankfully most of the plants were small and supple enough to possibly survive the tumbling, so I planted what I could and will wait and see what survives.  There are a few I am passing on to a couple of friends to try their luck and the rest will go into my compost bin.

I have discovered that every year there is unexpected garden 'adventures' and things never go exactly as I want, but at the end of the season I am a little wiser, thankful for a harvest and ready to try again next season! :}  Remember storms and critters and bug and all sorts of things will take the opportunity to throw you curve balls, just take it as a life and garden lesson and see what you can do next year to be more prepared. 

Have you had a sever storm that caused you problems this season?  critters?  bugs? or...?  How did your plants fair?  What did you learn and how are you adapting?

Happy Gardening (even in storm cleanup)!