It was a long, sleepless night – October 10th – spent listening to extraordinary wind. Hurricane Milton traveled across Florida from somewhere around Tampa on the Gulf, to the Space Center and offshore on the east coast. I live about 50 miles north of where the eye traveled, and we got some big wind.
Amazingly, we never lost power. It has to do with all the tree trimming the power company has been doing. And all the previous storms that help clear things out.
We got off lucky with minimal flooding and damage from the hurricane. A few large oak branches fell in the driveway and the rest is mostly small stuff. I was pleasantly surprised after hearing that nasty wind.
In my garden, the tomato plants are dead, the eggplant needed to be propped back up, and the Moringa tree is completely down. My beet seedlings look like they might not make it, as they were flattened.
I had been excited to get growing this Fall, but now I feel like giving up. I seem to have way more setbacks than successes when it comes to growing a productive vegetable garden.
We were lucky. I haven’t seen news about the Gulf coast, but the damage must be horrible. They were still cleaning up debris from Hurricane Helene. North Carolina is in shambles, and fortunately this hurricane did not head in that direction.
The metal hurricane shutters on the windows will stay there for now. Hurricane season doesn’t end for over a month.
Thank you for sharing!
Hydrangeas Blue 
Glad to hear that you came through relatively unscathed, Pam!
I know, it is so disheartening spending time and energy to see all your
effort come to nothing – Nature can be a hard taskmaster for gardeners.
Maybe lower your expectations and just keep building up your garden and
plant the things that are easier – and that the bugs or critters
don’t/won’t eat (cactus soup anyone??) 🙂
And you will find some things work for you and some things just aren’t
worth the effort. We aren’t growing tomatoes this year as I still have a
lot in the freezer, and we have stopped growing broccoli because when it
is ready is when it is cheap in the shops.
However, I am growing potatoes, and broad beans (you can’t buy those
here) and strawberries! I have a lot as I never got around to getting
rid of the older ones – will see how they go.
Anyway, it is great to know that you came through ok, and that the
garden came through sort of ok.
🙂
Justine
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I totally agree Justine, grow what works. I may become a sweet potato farmer. Those seem fool proof! 😂 Sounds like you have quite the garden going yourself! And you have reminded me to plant more beans. They are easy, and delicious. Thanks for checking in! Hope all is well over on the other side of the world.
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All is well over here – we live in the North Island, and are quite
sheltered from much of the weather that goes up the west coast – we do
get winds, which regularly break off the long new shoots on my standard
roses – I didn’t know that was such a windy spot when I planted them there!
The first year I planted broad beans they ended up almost lying down the
wind was so strong. And I’m not planting climbing beans this year as we
are going to get 2 kittens after Christmas and the place I put the beans
last year, is where the cat proof overhang needs to go at the top of the
fence! We keep our cats in our section which most New Zealanders don’t.
We built the house in 2019 and I have had to create a garden from
scratch – we did put up solid fences which give the plants shelter and
there are no big trees close to us.
And we are in a small town so we don’t get possums which is the only
wild animal that sometimes attacks gardens in NZ. We don’t have racoons
or foxes or snakes or bears!
Happy cleanup! 😦
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