US Service Life May - June 2014 | Page 21

HOME & GARDEN Safeguard Your Garden From Hailstorms By: Joseph Harper You might have a lovely garden that you put your heart in, but with summer comes unpredictable weather. We all know Colorado Springs is no stranger to hail storms. All your hard work can be gone within minutes and there isn’t anything that can be done to stop the weather from happening, and many gardens have been ruined as a result. If you think about it, if there’s no rain, you would be limited to what you can grow. Nevertheless it could be demoralizing to put all of your effort in a garden only to have it wiped out by a violent hailstorm. You might enjoy having it rain at first since you don’t have to go out of your way to water the plants yourself. This is all fine and dandy until the water dropping from the sky turns to ice. It is a sense of dread, especially if you have gone through having your garden destroyed by a ten-minute hailstorm. The only solution in your case would be to take measures to protect your garden from such a storm. The first option is to set up a wire mesh screen that you can implement to cover the garden when it rains. It will instantly protect your garden, if it turns to hail, and either way the water will drip through the screen onto your plants. This isn’t a fix for everyone, as it is not easy to build, and will cost some money. If you have never been hit with a hailstorm, you can do something similar to this. When your garden has already been wiped out, you might be searching for a way to revive your garden. There isn’t very much you can try except to be deliberate and patient in caring for your plants. You won’t know how well your plants will make it through after a bad hailstorm. Make sure you have them covered if more rain or wind is expected, since this is a brittle stage. If you choose to have a garden, you will need to know how frequent hailstorms are in your area. For this reason, you ought to have an emergency strategy to protect your plants. No matter if it rarely occurs, you should have a strategy set up. It merely requires one hailstorm to destroy all the work you put in. It’s important to take preemptive measures so that the worst is actually avoided. Considering the work you put into your gardening, you wouldn’t want it to go to waste. 21