Sunday, October 28, 2012

Garden Preparations For Hurricane Sandy.

As I thought about the effects of the approaching high winds from Hurricane Sandy on our garden, I thought I would make a few preparations to protect our harvests.






I picked the figs that were ripe/close to being ripe, because the tree location is such that the figs would probably be whipped off the tree. The high wind would be bad enough, but the wind gusts are concentrated as they buffet off the side of the house and into the fig tree. These beauties weighed eight ounces.








I picked one ounce of what may be the last of the heritage raspberries for this year. They are somewhat protected from the winds by the house, so I'm hoping that I may see the new berries ripen for picking.








The Green Beauty Snow Peas have grown some, but I didn't see any blooms on them so I'm letting them ride out the storm as they are.









The cucumbers have exploded with blossoms! I just had to do something to try to protect them from the storm. They are too heavy to move, so I did the next best thing that I could think of.



I wrapped them up!



I took a painters dropcloth and wrapped it around the wire cage while at the same time overlapping the top edge of the wire fabric in order to help hold the cloth in place. After putting the cloth in place, I tied a rope tightly around the top of the wire cage to bind the cloth so it wouldn't slip down. Then I tied that to two of my raspberry fence posts in order to keep the cage from being blown over. The weight of the wet dropcloth should help hold it in place.






This way, the cuke plants could get the rain and the blossoms would be protected from the strong winds.








Another concern of mine was wind damage to the tomatoes that were still on the vines. I know from their position in the yard that the wind would blast the remaining tomatoes right off the vines and onto the ground, bruising and damaging them. To alleviate that concern, I simply picked all the remaining tomatoes. Canning Green Tomato Relish is in my immediate future! Oddly enough, we finished the last jar of our canned green tomato relish from last year the same day I picked all these.

Here is the tally from this tomato pickin' time:

     Green Celebrity Tomatoes                -       16 pounds
     Green Roma Tomatoes                      -    12.5 pounds
     Green Park's Whopper Tomatoes    -       41 pounds
     Ripe/Almost Ripe Romas                   -      8.5 pounds
     Ripe/Almost Ripe Park's Whoppers -         5 pounds
     Total Pounds This Picking                        83 pounds!


At this point, I think the garden is ready for Hurricane Sandy. I wouldn't mind if the storm made a sharp turn out to sea, though.

Stay safe and be careful during this "event".

Have a great vegetable gardening day!
Veggie PAK

4 comments:

  1. I was going to take my row covers off the beds a couple days ago. At least the ones that won't go through December. But I decided they were probably safer under wraps.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You two stay safe and I hope the storm doesn't do too much damage.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wowsa! That's a load of tomatoes. I hope you can handle that many green tomatoes! Maybe some will ripen though? Saty safe, that storm is a doozy and is still blowing us around after a week!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your figs are beautiful!!
    Yesterday I posted my fig pudding recipe..check it out if you wish. Hope all went as well as could be in the storm. Be safe.
    Peace and Raw Health,
    Elizabeth

    ReplyDelete