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Harbor Lane Gardens got hit with hail 3 years our of 4, 2007 - 2010, culminating in the big one during the garden party on the Friday night of the national convention? Some of you were even there when it happened. So sad to prepare for a decade, only to have the gardens severely damaged just before most of the tours...
Nothing compared with what hit us on June 29. Two waves of violent hail storm. The first did a lot of damage - and people only a few blocks away got none. The second came out of nowhere and was devastating. Drifts of marble-sized up to quarter-sized hail and about 5 inches of rain total.
Don't look at the photos if you have a weak stomach...
The Zen room... healthy oak leaves...
Driveway... pea shrub leaves
Spruce trees... all cones and many of the needles and branches stripped...
Each mark in the "patina" of the decking is a dimple - and each impact sounded like a gunshot...
Glass gazing ball that lost its mirror surface and has been a favorite for years as a "penny ball"...
It came in from the north... surely those south-facing ones protected by the deck were spared?
Way down under heavy tree protection, what some have called the finest Guardian Angel in the Midwest...
Ah... but that sheltered area on the west where that 7' diameter clump of Sagae hides the gas meter... that must have been spared...
Did you get pictures of that amazing 6' diameter Victory... leaves up to 18" long this year... a show-stopper!
Well, at least that big wave of old Krossa Regal plants that you see out the kitchen window, in the protection of a giant spruce, must have stood up well?
I can't go on with this horror show... for every one I've posted there are 10 more horrible photos. Roughly 3000 hostas and innumerable other perennials shattered. I know they'll be back next year... but we worked hundreds of hours to get the garden in shape for a garden club tour... and now it just hurts to walk out of the house... so we are letting ourselves feel sorry for ourselves right now.
Jim, words cannot convey the sorrow i feel for you and Sheila. But what can we do? Get out the leaf blower, build some big mulch piles, and wait for next year...
I agree with Tigger/David, time to clean up and wait for next year. I know here I can cut back and they will have time to regrow
but that won't be in time for a garden tour. So sorry to see these photo, just breaks one's heart knowing all the work can be
gone in just a flash.
Ours are frying out here if we don't water.
karma 'Happy Toes' (kHT)
The Goddess is Alive and Magic is Afoot!!!!
I'm just a simple housewife.
Your pictures are unbelievable and heartbreaking at the same time. I am so, so sorry that you have to experience something like that. I don't know how anything positive can come from such devastation, but if there is something, I hope you find it.
I'm so sorry, Jim and Sheila. I guess you can sit in the Zen room and turn your backs to the garden for a while? And then take a breath, clean it up and maybe take an impromptu trip in the new RV?
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten.....
Algernon Charles Swinburne
OMG Jim, I can't even imagine the pain of seeing and hearing all that hail damage as it was happening and then to view all that devastation in the aftermath, ugh. So, so sorry.
Ohhh, Jim, I am so sorry. As you say, they will come back next year, but you have every right to be just sick about it for a while. All those hours of prep.
Maybe just do minimal cleanup and get away for a couple days.
OMG.
I've loved your pictures for a very long time without posting, but had to now.
I have been whining about deer ravaging every hosta, heuchera and Japanese maple I have this year, after my dog died, but this.
I am so devastated for you.
I can't think of a single thing to help you feel better.
I am SO sorry.
Ohhh Jim and Sheila.... so, so sorry for you
It does not even look like hostas at all
If no HVX use the mover and then jump into the Beast and visit hosta friends for a month before you go back
Got hail damage for the first time ever this year... but nothing compared to yours.... most anoying is people tells me it is slug daamage and do not belive me when I tell them it is what hail can do.
Against stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain.
E-mail for pics hostapics@gmail.com
