Storm!

Tuesday night we had a strong storm, thunder, lightening and high winds with gusts around 15 mph. We had a lot of branches down in the development where I live. Our professional gardeners spent much of yesterday cutting down broken branches and collecting debris which now sits in large piles near the road for pickup.

I brought the plants on my balcony as close to my building as possible to shield them from wind and strong rain and predicted hail. The hail never happened, but we had strong rain and winds. Everybody made it through very well, except the tomato which broke free from it's stake and cage and bent over. In the dark and rain, I thought the main stem had snapped, but on closer examination I saw that it was only bent. I went out after the wind danger ended and tied it up against the balcony.

The Leaning Tower of Tomato

You'll notice that I've planted marigolds with the tomato. I did that on Sunday. Marigolds are supposed to keep insects away from the plant. They also add color. According to sources, I could have also planted broccoli with the tomato, but I don't really like broccoli.

In other garden news, I planted a couple of new Black Beauty zucchini plants:

Black Beauty Zucchini

I had bad luck with zucchini last year, but I attribute the failure to too small a container. I'm trying again with a 3 gallon container that my dad previously used for flowers on his patio.

The rest of the garden seems pretty happy post storm:

Peppers, lemon tree and lettuce survived the storm

There is a lettuce down..............I ate it.

Red Sails Lettuce Regrowing After a Yummy Salad