My garden took a beating yesterday. That tropical storm actually blew, yes quite literally blew the petals off my roses.

Le sigh…..

Yesterday, after the storm had passed, we stood up the overturned pots and gave tomato plants a slight haircut because when they all got toppled over like bowling pins by the winds a lot of vine pieces snapped. Today I noticed all the tomatoes all over the ground in various places. Which of course made the squirrels very happy.

I will note for the record getting stung in the face by a bee really sucks. I do everything to have a be friendly garden, and I don’t like it when the bees aren’t friendly.

This morning as I righted askew rose supports, I took stock of my garden. I will admit the storm damage made me down in the dumps for quite a while today. But then I had to put it in perspective: at least I still have a house to live in. I can’t say that for some of the people in my area who had extensive damage.

I will have to put down a lot more wood chips because so much washed away in several inches of crazy torrential rain.

I also had to prune back hydrangeas, rosebushes, and more due to wind damage. My favorite rugosa rose bush in particular got a big haircut. I need everything to dry out for a couple of days because I need to feed the roses. So I might go use the granular this time since I don’t want to add more water to the soil.

The plants that were hurt the most yesterday were my dinner plate hibiscuses. I used to have four, now I have three because I lost one this winter.

But this morning they were smashed flat to the ground. And their stems are heavy with blooms and buds. So I dug out an old assortment of bamboo stakes I was hanging onto for I am not sure what reason. I staked the showy ladies of August up and I’m hoping the plants will recover. I did lose a few stems to breakage.

This storm was a setback. In a sense it’s nature’s pruning, but it was still so sad to see everything the storm got ahold of and twisted around. I picked up debris and I gave a bunch of stuff to trim. I’ve decided I’m going in to slow down mode in the garden as we ease towards the end of summer into fall.

This fall I have some heirloom bulbs, tree peonies, and two very cool hydrangeas to plant. I am also investigating clematis because I’ve decided looking at the naked legs of a couple of my roses I’m going to plant clematis at their feet as I had mentioned in another post.

I have a lot more cleanup ahead of me. It will take me some time to accomplish everything. And I will tell you the weeds are absurdly happy after the rain which is a bummer.

My apologies for not being like the energizer bunny gardener today. When you look out on storm damage even if your house is still standing, it’s like your shoulders slump immediately. But this too shall pass!

Happy gardening!