Wednesday, August 29, 2018

I've Had Help Putting The Garden To Bed Early This Year

The "someone" helping me is Mother Nature herself.

We had stiff winds blowing all day Monday and for much of that night.  This followed a good amount of rainfall which made the soil fairly soft.

Going out into the garden yesterday morning, I found these two things had combined to do a bit of damage.


Granted, the seemingly sturdy stems of cosmos plants are actually quite fragile . . . 


. . . and these didn't hold up to the wind at all.


If you look closely, you can see that this trellis of my decorative gourds has developed a definite tilt toward the south.  (Yes, grass cutting and weed whipping is on the schedule for today.  'Bout time.)


The onion tops had started to topple over, but they all got laid flat in the wind.


This Brussels sprout plant broke off completely right at ground level.  I'm mighty thankful the rest of them didn't go the same way.


My Ring of Fire sunflowers didn't escape damage.  The ones in the middle of the row would have gone completely over if they hadn't had their fall broken by the row of big sunflowers behind.

But it's all okay.  If it had happened earlier in the season, I would be upset.  As it is, I'm choosing to take this all as a supportive sign in my decision to wrap up this gardening season a bit early.  Thanks, Ma Nature!

11 comments:

wisps of words said...

Mother Nature is embarrassed about all the heat/humidity, she made you suffer through, this working season summer. Sooooo, she is trying to make up for it, by helping with the fall clean up!

>,-)

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

That's what happened to our popcorn, but before we could harvest anything. I'm so ready to rip mine out too.

Mama Pea said...

wisps of words - Well, THAT explains all those strong winds!! ;o) (Keep up the positive encouragement comments!)

Mama Pea said...

Kristina - I almost planted some ornamental corn this year so I'd have some of those lovely, colorful big ears to use for decoration. I came to my senses though knowing the last three times I've tried any corn at all, the wind has laid it flat! I have to figure out a way of supporting it against our frequent winds. So sorry about your corn. :o(

Rain said...

Hi Mama Pea :) That's too bad about the wind! We have big wind here but the garden is kind of protected by the house, then the woods in the back. Each of the other two sides is protected by fencing and ferns that grow much higher than the plants, so I've been safe in that respect. I'm glad you're looking at it positively though!!

Donna OShaughnessy said...

Much of that same storm hot us in central Illinois last night and my garden looks just like yours. Still, a joy to walk around and get MUDDY after so much drought our way. Flowers will pop back and we'll get to enjoy them a bit longer won't we?

Mama Pea said...

Rain - We're so much surrounded by woods here it's always a wonder that we get so much wind. And it seems each year it gets a little more frequent and damaging. Oh well, we're not moving, that's for sure. ;o)

Donna OShaughnessy - I'm sure the growing season isn't over for everything. It just seems that way on gray, damp days. And this time of year the garden never looks very neat anyway . . . wind-blown or not!

Lynne said...

I get a lot of wind here. Had to straighten out tomato plants a couple of times this summer.Had to stake the cages. Flowers aren't to happy with the wind either. Were just use to it. There is always wind around here. In the summer you really appreciate it when it's hot. I would think having a good size garden like yours it could raise the devil with your vegetables. It's a good idea to put the garden to bed for the winter. Take good care of yourselves.

Mama Pea said...

Lynne - Just in for a short afternoon break. It's only in the high 70s in the garden today but I've had sweat dripping off my nose. That's okay because as I'm pulling out flowers (really past their prime) I'm congratulating myself on getting going on the clean-up early this year rather than waiting until everything is deader than a door nail and the soil is half frozen. Maybe I actually am learning to do things wiser! Hope you have a good weekend coming up.

Nancy In Boise said...

Oh so sad!!! Well atleast some of your things were tough :)

Mama Pea said...

Nancy - I'm really not feeling too bad about what got knocked down and out. It's so close to the end of our season anyway, and it has just made it easier to yank out some plants earlier. I'm very thankful all of the Brussels sprouts but that one made it. I would have been very frustrated to have lost most (or all!) of them.