What did you do in the garden today?

[Liz Birdlover]

Thanks, yes, I'm fine. The storms were about 90 miles south of me. Portage, MI (just outside of Kzoo) was hit by TWO tornados. Lots of buildings/homes damaged. Reports of injuries, but no fatalities.

Good to hear no fatalities. That is very scary.

I have had 2 tornadoes 🌪 blow right through this yard, & I will never forget the sound & feel of the house shaking. One took a 30 foot Magnolia tree & it landed 100 feet away from where it was growing, right between my house & pigeon loft. The tornado hopped over my house, then left a trail in the crop farm field, then rose up & hopped over neighbor's horse barn, sheering off the tops of trees behind her barn, right at her barn roof height...so it was like there was an invisible shield over my pigeon loft, house & her barn.
(I was praying & envisioned God's large hand over the house, coop & her horses...thank you Lord!)

I cannot imagine the terror & fright of a direct hit, being in a building as it is being shred & torn apart, destroyed by wind while you're inside. Very intense! I feel for anyone that's gone through it, and my heart goes out to those that lost loved ones & their homes.

 

[lagrange chicks]

Yesterday at light I tilled a bit of the garden to get 3 rows of carrots/ radish seed in, always put a radish seed in the carrot rows about a foot apart for marking the rows. Beet the storm by an hour or so and am glad I put narrow pieces of wood over the rows because it poured and would of just washed the seed away.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Yesterday at light I tilled a bit of the garden to get 3 rows of carrots/ radish seed in, always put a radish seed in the carrot rows about a foot apart for marking the rows. Beet the storm by an hour or so and am glad I put narrow pieces of wood over the rows because it poured and would of just washed the seed away.

That's awesome you covered with wood. I used wood as planks when my garden up north flooded...we were swamped with rain. I was upset thinking my melons would drown, so went out there in pouring rain & laid down planks & set my watermelons up on the planks. I tell ya, they were the best darn watermelons I ever had!

 

[Molpet]

It will take time for anything to grow, unless you lay out the money for something already tall. When we got neighbors that put in a pool, we planted the Green Giants, the evergreens are wonderful but they do get huge. They're like Leyland Cypress, but have deeper roots to deal with wind. Until they got tall, I planted a lot of Sunflowers. There are skinny versions, that don't eat up as much room, you just have to plant more of them.

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I have several different varieties of arborvitae. The deer love them and have a browse line 4ft up.

 

[fuzzi]

Good to hear no fatalities. That is very scary.

I have had 2 tornadoes 🌪 blow right through this yard, & I will never forget the sound & feel of the house shaking. One took a 30 foot Magnolia tree & it landed 100 feet away from where it was growing, right between my house & pigeon loft. The tornado hopped over my house, then left a trail in the crop farm field, then rose up & hopped over neighbor's horse barn, sheering off the tops of trees behind her barn, right at her barn roof height...so it was like there was an invisible shield over my pigeon loft, house & her barn.
(I was praying & envisioned God's large hand over the house, coop & her horses...thank you Lord!)

I cannot imagine the terror & fright of a direct hit, being in a building as it is being shred & torn apart, destroyed by wind while you're inside. Very intense! I feel for anyone that's gone through it, and my heart goes out to those that lost loved ones & their homes.

I do not EVER want to experience that. When we were in SC living in a mobile home I recall us bugging out once, with cats, dog, children, and we sat in a friend's house for the duration, in her sunken den. While loading up the car the rain was coming down so hard that it left me breathless, knocked the air out of me. The sky was green. The tornado was close but hit Chesnee, a little town just north of us. A friend was spared, his house had minor damage, but the other houses in his neighborhood were flattened.

 

[lagrange chicks]

That's awesome you covered with wood. I used wood as planks when my garden up north flooded...we were swamped with rain. I was upset thinking my melons would drown, so went out there in pouring rain & laid down planks & set my watermelons up on the planks. I tell ya, they were the best darn watermelons I ever had!

Carrot seed at a 1/4" deep would have floated all over the garden.

 

[TillyPeeps]

I have Green Giant Arborvitae around my property lines. They are huge! Really good for privacy, but it's difficult for me to find good sunny spots to expand my gardens.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I do not EVER want to experience that. When we were in SC living in a mobile home I recall us bugging out once, with cats, dog, children, and we sat in a friend's house for the duration, in her sunken den. While loading up the car the rain was coming down so hard that it left me breathless, knocked the air out of me. The sky was green. The tornado was close but hit Chesnee, a little town just north of us. A friend was spared, his house had minor damage, but the other houses in his neighborhood were flattened.

That is terrifying I cannot imagine. What's weird is we've had tornadoes around here, but these 2 particular tornadoes occurred during hurricanes. Hurricanes Irene & Sandy. Like we are already stressed from days of preparing for the hurricanes, boarding up stuff, bringing in stuff, etc. Then hunkered down in the house for days of windy rain, then a tornadoes decided to pop up...really? I had No Idea that could happen! When it happens, you're looking out of the window and the constant rain & wind suddenly "change" & you know something is happening, but what...then the window looks like you're inside a car wash, all of the windows look like that, you cannot see anything but a water blur, but you hear a weird sound...like the blender & mixer are on, amplified, then it gets louder, then it along with a high pitch whirring comes a deep rumbling like never ending thunder & it actually seems like your house is inside of a blender. Cannot see diddly squat out any single window, just a very weird, scary, unsettling scenario. It was just my dad & me in the house, and we just walked to the center of the house, saw the watery blur of all windows, heard these sounds as they increased in loudness, and stood there frozen staring at eachother with wide eyes like thinking...it this it? Are we gonna die today? Then the house rumbles & shutters, feels like it might lift off, actually feel a breeze inside the house & it sounds like windows may have a slight leak that air is pushing through with a high pitch sound...it's the best I can describe it. It goes on for several minutes, the sounds get louder, faster, higher pitched & the house trembles, then it's as if it reaches a high peak then someone turns down the volume & it gets lower pitched...I guess it's moving away now. We can breathe now...didn't even realize we were holding our breath. We just experienced the sounds of a tornado. Kinda wide eyed & shocked...who knew hurricanes produced tornadoes...we sure didn't.
We know now! Then we see the windows no longer look like we are inside a car in a car wash...we can make out stuff outside now, we can see debris all over, siding, shingles...and oh my goodness, a large tree is at the back door...what the heck, it broke a glass top table we just got a mere 48 hours prior, then look out further...oh my, the Magnoila tree is gone...holy crap, that's the tree at the back door now!
Yeah, it was quite an experience. I'm just feeling blessed we lived to tell the tale.

 

[Molpet]

That is terrifying I cannot imagine. What's weird is we've had tornadoes around here, but these 2 particular tornadoes occurred during hurricanes. Hurricanes Irene & Sandy. Like we are already stressed from days of preparing for the hurricanes, boarding up stuff, bringing in stuff, etc. Then hunkered down in the house for days of windy rain, then a tornadoes decided to pop up...really? I had No Idea that could happen! When it happens, you're looking out of the window and the constant rain & wind suddenly "change" & you know something is happening, but what...then the window looks like you're inside a car wash, all of the windows look like that, you cannot see anything but a water blur, but you hear a weird sound...like the blender & mixer are on, amplified, then it gets louder, then it along with a high pitch whirring comes a deep rumbling like never ending thunder & it actually seems like your house is inside of a blender. Cannot see diddly squat out any single window, just a very weird, scary, unsettling scenario. It was just my dad & me in the house, and we just walked to the center of the house, saw the watery blur of all windows, heard these sounds as they increased in loudness, and stood there frozen staring at eachother with wide eyes like thinking...it this it? Are we gonna die today? Then the house rumbles & shutters, feels like it might lift off, actually feel a breeze inside the house & it sounds like windows may have a slight leak that air is pushing through with a high pitch sound...it's the best I can describe it. It goes on for several minutes, the sounds get louder, faster, higher pitched & the house trembles, then it's as if it reaches a high peak then someone turns down the volume & it gets lower pitched...I guess it's moving away now. We can breathe now...didn't even realize we were holding our breath. We just experienced the sounds of a tornado. Kinda wide eyed & shocked...who knew hurricanes produced tornadoes...we sure didn't.
We know now! Then we see the windows no longer look like we are inside a car in a car wash...we can make out stuff outside now, we can see debris all over, siding, shingles...and oh my goodness, a large tree is at the back door...what the heck, it broke a glass top table we just got a mere 48 hours prior, then look out further...oh my, the Magnoila tree is gone...holy crap, that's the tree at the back door now!
Yeah, it was quite an experience. I'm just feeling blessed we lived to tell the tale.

That had to be terrible

 

[Liz Birdlover]

That had to be terrible

It was very surprising & scary...really just never knew tornadoes & hurricanes can go together. Hurricane is bad enough, right?