An unexpected (for us) storm blew through our area Friday night taking out trees and power lines. We are all safe, but some of our older trees suffered significant losses. We are without power and are currently staying with family because of the extreme heat. Millions were affected by this storm and our prayers are with them. I am so grateful that we escaped without greater damage. 80 mph gusts of wind are frightening! I expected a total loss in the garden, but that wasn’t the case! While our neighbor lost his garden, ours is unscathed. The following photos were taken pre storm. I uploaded them minutes before we lost power hoping not to miss our little garden party. I don’t have my notes from the past two weeks with me, so I will just narrate as I go!
Silas, thrilled with a worm. He put it in his mouth-I shrieked.
Keats and Beatrix helped me gather all the red norland potatoes from this bed.
I planted black eyed peas in their place.
Carrots!
Cherokee purple tomatoes…a couple more weeks before they start to turn is my guess.
Kentucky pole beans are planted along the random structures. There was supposed to be a neat row of zucchini plants across the front, but help with labeling resulted in a mixture of squashes, some of them the sprawling winter squash sort.
pickling cucumbers are doing well
We are so excited about these tomatillos. This is our first time growing them.
Early morning watering with Larkspur.
One of the four peanut plants that we ended up with.
It is surrounded by dragon tongue beans.
calendula!
cilantro flowering
How about all of you? How’s your garden growing? Were any of you affected by Friday’s east coast storm?
Glad you are safe and sound. LOVE your blog! The rawness of life with a bigger family is so palpable in your posts. We have 5 children (although 2 are now young adults) and we have home schooled for 7 years, so I can (and do) relate to your words and experiences… Thank you for sharing in this space – it is a delight to come here and read (and commiserate, at times…)
PS – your garden looks absolutely breathtaking – I LOVE the clover… so much, in fact, I was inspired to buy some seed to sow at our place 🙂
Yay, calendula!!!! Glad you guys are ok!
Gorgeous garden walk, despite the weather!
I love these gardening journal posts so much and can’t wait to get home to plant in my little raised beds!
PS I hope you don’t mind that I linked to you this week in my own blog.
I borrowed Confessions of a Bad Beekeeper from my library and laughed out loud while reading. Very funny book.
The storm arrived unexpectedly and I could only imagine my poor pepper plants that are heavy with fruit, falling over. Alas, my pepper plants survived the wind but many of my tomato cages blew over, breaking the plants.
We were very lucky at our house, that was one wicked storm.
I just heard about this storm from a friend this morning. I’m so glad that you are all well (and your garden too!) I so enjoy seeing your garden photos so I’d be really bummed if you had to stop the updates! ;o)
I’ll be back next week with a garden update of our own, haven’t had much time this week.
xoxo
~ joey ~
ps. If you have a chance to visit my blog this week, I’m hosting my first giveaway! :o)
I’m glad everyone was ok!
Here in Florida we just got the rainy part of that storm (I think it was the same)–there’s lots of flooding around here, but not for us, thankfully. Our friend’s neighbor accidentally drove his truck into what looked like a large puddle and turned out to be very deep. He had to be rescued by police in a canoe.
It always kind of amuses me when people freak out about not having air conditioning. We didn’t have AC in our house or car until I was ten. We lived in north central Florida, where the weather is extremely hot and humid most of the year. We have AC now, and I can certainly understand. I don’t think anyone would live in the South these days if it weren’t for AC. They certainly wouldn’t retire in South Florida.
The carrots and potatoes are beautiful!
Your potatoes look awesome! We planted purple carrots this year, but it will still be quite a while before we can pick them. I did pull a couple just to see if they actually were purple though, and they were 🙂 Very cool! I am definitely jealous of how much you are getting from your garden! We are still mainly getting greens/bok choy/peas.
Hi Ginny. Glad to hear that you are all OK and that you have somewhere to keep cool.
Your garden goodies look awesome. I have just a small garden bed in my yard and I’ve had some success this season with Sugar Snap Peas and Lettuce. The tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, pole beans, and green peppers are starting to look good. Perhaps this will give me the confidence to expand next year.
Thanks for sharing and have a great day.
I keep hearing about the storm. There are trees down all around us. We had left for the weekend for a bit of an adventure and way too much driving. Glad you are all safe. stay cool.
The heat and storms in your side of the US are mentioned in our newbulletins too! In the Netherlands, which means it’s really serious. I hope your power will be back by now and good luck with repairs around the house and the neighbourhood.
how scary, and lucky at the same time. your garden is my favorite kind, a little wild and lush. aw silas, it’s just a little protein. 🙂
p.s. LOVED the morning photos in your last post.
I’m so glad you are safe. Your garden pictures are amazing. The picture of Silas with the worm horrified me. I am deathly afraid of worms. I couldn’t even imagine keeping the composure to take a picture! Again I’m glad you are safe.
Here in Europe we have this year a very hot summer too, with occasional storms, but none as violent as the one you described. The problem is when it’s raining, there are some major floods in areas with deforestation. And people are affected each time, but they never get that is important to keep the forest.
I’m glad you are all ok. I checked your blog several times a day 🙂
Those potatoes and carrots are beautiful and bountiful. I love seeing your children playing/working in the garden with you.
I linked a garden post, and as usual it’s all full of everything but if you scroll down a but you get to the garden part.
Hoping you stay safe and cool (and maybe a teensy bit caffeinated).
Glad to hear you are all OK, have been thinking of you all and keeping you in my prayers.
I did happen to think about your earlier post when the trees got trimmed……….maybe there was a reason for that, that you didn’t comprehend at the time.
One year we were supposed to be building a large, permanent wooden fence, it kept getting delayed and I was getting steamed about it, then we had a massive wind storm and a very big tree came down right across where the fence would have been……..makes you ponder about how our plans and wants aren’t always realised when WE want them to be.
God Bless your lovely family while you are away from home, I hope you get your power back soon.
I am so glad that you and your lovely family are ok. I am sorry that your power is down, and hope that you will be able to return home soon. This storm has touched so many people, it is truly heartbreaking.
I am also very thankful that your garden was spared. Be well and be safe….
Your photos are always so lovely. I love the shot of the carrots and the potatoes. So glad that your garden was spared! My garden is very tiny compared to yours, but I just recently put a post up about it, so I thought I’d share.
I’m glad you’re okay and your garden too. Both of my sister’s are without power and one suffered quite a bit of damage, very scary!
Your garden looks so lovely and productive. I especially love the gate as a frame for climbing plants.
I’m so glad that you guys weren’t too affected by the storm! We have had one of the rainiest June’s ever, but things are still growing, and it is saving us money on the water bill! Looking forward to some sunshine and warmth though!
Good pictures! I’m glad that your garden is unscathed. Happy Sunday! 🙂
“I like their plants, I think the girl looked pretty that planted them” (Isaac, 8 years)
I love those colorful carrots. Your garden is so lush. We’re waiting for some sunshine (it’s been really rainy here) to give our garden a boost.
I’m so glad you are all alright.
oh those potatoes and carrots look great. I wish I understood the whole planting of potato thing, I see so many different ways to do it. Have a great day
PS Am so glad you are all fine, we saw the storm news coverage on TV. WOW.
oh those potatoes and carrots look great. I wish I understood the whole planting of potato thing, I see so many different ways to do it. Have a great day
The same storm blew through Ohio Friday around 5 pm. We lost power for about 18 hours but many around here have no power yet and there are still a lot of trees down. The only damage we had was small sticks and a lot of leaves. We have some 80+ yo trees that we just had trimmed in the spring or I’m sure it would have been much worse. Some of the tall, thinner trees were blowing sideways. It was a very powerful and fast- moving storm. More to come, this week, I hear.
I’m glad to know you and yours are ok. We can all really appreciate our air conditioning now!
What a relief that your garden survived – but I really feel for your neighbour. At least you’ll be able to take them a basket or two of produce to console I suppose. x
i’m so glad your place didn’t sustain any more damage. we happened to be vacationing in chincoteauge this week – so there was a storm during the middle of friday night, but nothing too crazy. we came home to power in blacksburg, but many in our church are without power and have had damage to their house or property in some way. we actually had a hard time finding gas on the way home, being oblivious to the severity of the storms.