Garden + Hail= Chopped Salad (Denver, Golden: house, buy, living)

[JrzDefector]

So we got hit by an unexpected hailstorm yesterday - I couldn't even go out to cover my plants. I think I lost everything except the herbs. It's basically a chopped salad out there.

This was the year I thought my garden was going to come together. and then... UGH. So sad.

[beezle1]

Build a hail screen. Has saved my garden many times!

[Kar54]

Originally Posted by JrzDefector

So we got hit by an unexpected hailstorm yesterday - I couldn't even go out to cover my plants. I think I lost everything except the herbs. It's basically a chopped salad out there.

This was the year I thought my garden was going to come together. and then... UGH. So sad.

As they say, been there, done that.

Do what beezle1 says.

[JrzDefector]

Good idea! You'd think with all I'd invested in this year's garden, I'd have done that, but no one here seems to have them in the Denver area. Weird.

[cowboyxjon]

Sorry to hear this! Seems like the storm formed just east of Golden. It rained briefly but didn't hail at my house, but the sky to the east of my house had a very dark, ominous color.

I lost a cucumber plant the other week due to heavy wind and maybe a little bit of hail.

[StealthRabbit]

Yes, very sad event for farmers and gardeners (30 yrs farming in hail prone CO, NE, WY)...

Many yrs were very lean living. Grows 'character' parents would say when the plate was empty due to hail or meeting payroll.

Use a cover, religiously....

Hope you get to salvage something. Fortunately it is usually very localized, so your friends who missed getting hit will share out of their abundance. We often would 'glean' commercial fields after harvest during poor yrs. at least we ate.

[Vision67]

This is the reason I now buy my fresh produce at the Farmer's market.

I tried back yard gardens for a few years after 1977 when we first moved to Colorado.

I lost two to hail; the rest to bugs.

[randomparent]

We have a small garden and some raspberry bushes, but when the hail arrives, as it frequently does this time of year, there's little you can do. I've found that the beds up against the south side of the house fare best in violent storms. Of course, even a hail screen won't protect the garden against the type of storm we had a couple of years ago. Thirty-five thousand dollars worth of damage! The garden recovered faster than we could repair the house.

[JrzDefector]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Yes, very sad event for farmers and gardeners (30 yrs farming in hail prone CO, NE, WY)...

Many yrs were very lean living. Grows 'character' parents would say when the plate was empty due to hail or meeting payroll.

Use a cover, religiously....

Hope you get to salvage something. Fortunately it is usually very localized, so your friends who missed getting hit will share out of their abundance. We often would 'glean' commercial fields after harvest during poor yrs. at least we ate.

I can't imagine farming the land in this part of the country with the crazy storms. This is just a backyard hobby garden, luckily. My grandfather would feed the entire extended family with his garden back in Jersey - we ate corn and tomatoes all summer.

Looking into getting some screens at least for next year, if not this year.

Thanks!