The Aftermath of Hurricane Irene: Part 1

I had such a rough night with the Hurricane. I did not sleep a wink since our basement is prone to flooding when we get constant rainfalls.  Without fail, after hours of constant rain, water started coming into the basement through the floors, windows and bulkhead door.   Water was even starting to come in through the drain of the slopsink in the basement.  It's because the slopsink is connected to the sewer line and with the rainwater overloading the sewer system in the neighborhood, the water was coming back into the house.  I spend about 4 hours scooping out the water out of the slopsink with buckets.  The more I scooped, the more the water filled the sink. I kept at it even though I was exhausted because if I didn't remove the water, my basement would have flooded.  What an ordeal!  The next project on my list is to install a shut off valve to prevent water from coming back to the house. When the Hurricane finally passed us, I went outside to check out the garden.  I couldn't wait to see what was in store for me.  I was really surprised, the garden didn't look as bad as I thought it would.  I thought the wind was going to tear down the bean pole trellises, but they were still standing.  Yeah!

However, the same can't be said the same of the tomato plants.  You can't really tell from this photo, but many of the tomato plants  have all fallen over.

Here is a closeup, this tomato plant was tied to a wooden dowel and tomato cage, but that didn't help it  much.   It toppled over.   LOL.  I need to come up with a better trellis system.  I was pretty amazed that some of the tomato cages barely budged in the howling wind.  They did pretty good with protecting the tomato plants.  You'll see on the left a cage still standing.

Before the storm hit, I hesitated with picking the green tomatoes.  I ended up not picking them and hoped for the best.  To my surprise, these large Brandywines stayed on the vine!  I thought because they were so heavy that they would for sure be knocked off the vine.  I am so glad I didn't pick them because I prefer to have them ripen on the vine. Hooray!  I can't wait for the Brandywines to start changing color!!  I can't wait to try these tomatoes.

Outside the picket fence the plants didn't fare as well.  I guess because they had less protection from the wind.  I think the picket fence helped protect the other plants from the whipping wind.  Here is the bed with the tobacco and tomato plants.  It is a toppled mess.

A view from the other side of the raised bed.  The plants are still alive, they just need to be supported somehow.  To be honest, I'm not that sad that these plants were crushed.  It was the hubs hobby, not mine. :)

Here is the bed with some of the tomato plants.  Totally blown over.

Most surprisingly, I only found one green tomato on the ground.  A Yellow Pear!  Isn't it just amazing that all the tomatoes stayed on the vine?  I am sooo impressed!  Even after many of the tomato plants fell, the tomatoes stayed in tact.  I learned a lot from this big storm, that plants are pretty resilient even after Hurricane gust winds and torrential rainfall.  I hope everyone who was in the path of Irene came out of it safe and sound.

A Tour of the Garden

I took these photos a few weeks ago. I realized that I haven't posted any photos of the garden layout so here is a little tour.  On the right, is the raised bed of pumpkin and zucchini squash.  Next to that is a bed of Eggplant, Leeks, Celery, Beets, and Radishes.  In the very back are the pole beans, yardlong beans, broccoli, and brussel sprouts.

I'm really loving the celery plants, the seeds were given to me by Food Garden Kitchen.  They are growing really slow, but doing very well.   And the best part, bugs seem to leave them alone.   I like to cut only what's needed for cooking, I'll trim only the outer leaves and stalks to cook with and then continue to let it grow.  This will definitely return to the garden next year.

Here is the Japanese pumpkin plant.  I'm a little bummed because I have yet to see a pumpkin growing on the plant.  The plant is gigantic, so it's very frustrating.  Argh...

On the far corner of the garden, are the cucumbers growing up the picket fence.  I don't even put up a trellis because they will grow up the fence.  I'm growing a few different varieties of cukes this year.  White Cucumber, Straight Eight, Parisian, and Boston.

I should have labeled these plants, because I have no idea what's what.

I believe this is a Straight Eight cucumber that is forming. 

Here is the left side of the garden.  We never got around to putting in raised beds so everything is directly in the ground which I hate because there are SO many weeds!  This side has the peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, asparagus, peas and strawberries.

Here are the raised beds outside of the fenced area.  We quickly ran out of room on the inside fenced area so we put 4 raised beds on the grass.  I'm thinking I still need more room.  Maybe I can put in more raised beds and get rid of the grass entirely.  hahahaha. In this bed, the hubs is growing tobacco to roll his own cigars.  I'm not thrilled with this "crop" so I only gave him half a bed to indulge in his hobby. The other half of the bed has tomato plants.

This is the bed with the Heritage raspberry plants.  We only got 2 berries this year.  I'm looking forward to next year, I hope we get lots and lots of berries!

We have one bed with 15 tomato plants in it.  I think it's going to get overly crowded, we shall see.  Behind that bed, is our rhubarb bed.  I have 3 rhubarbs growing in it.  For some reason, I have a very hard time growing rhubarb.  The three plants I grew last year all died.  I planted 4 more this year so I am hoping for the best.  I just hope next year I can harvest some rhubarb.