Monday 7 May 2012

Gust unbelievable

Look, I'm perfectly capable of screwing things up in the garden myself. I don't need this:






I'm so despondent I can't even come up with a decent pun.


It happened a second time just before I had to travel north for work last week. With a 6:30am train to catch I didn't have time to rescue anything. The picture isn't the true carnage - I've cleaned much of it up in a traumatised daze, but my early seedlings are ruined, having been rescued after the first collapse a couple of weeks ago (and typically just as I was about to head north for work too).


This didn't happen to me last year, I always make sure I weight the things down, not least with the compost-filled trays.


I don't know what others have experienced, but for me I had a strange mix between 'my computer has crashed and I've lost all my work, I can't face it all again' and 'I was actually quite attached to those seedlings - the potential in them, they were going to live good lives and I feel a small sense of loss'. A kind of private mini-mourning (not getting too dramatic).


I say that, but when the winds were at their menacing worst I had the following nightmare...


I woke up to a violent crash, and there in my face were the roots of the pear tree. It had been uprooted, been thrust across the garden, taking out the grow houses and indeed everything else in its bath, through the back window of my ground floor flat and, smash, within inches of my unsuspecting sleeping self.


Realising that this was absolutely ridiculous I properly woke up, but went outside just to check, as you do,  and to my total horror the tree had actually been uprooted, destroyed the garden, taken out a whole wall from the back room and left me panicking about how to tell the landlady.


Then I really did wake up, was late for work and it was only the grow houses that had blown down. Relief and sadness at the same time.


Dreams are weird, but it's clear I'm now very much attached to what I grow. 

4 comments:

Laura said...

I feel for you, will wear black today in empathetic mourning! u need a few days then you'll be ready to take on the weather challenge again, after all the wrong weather in all it's forms is an integral part of gardening, sometimes we r beaten and sometimes we beat it:)

Franny Zorbak said...

Ooops, not a good start to the summer! I also have 2 frames (the same) next to each other, but have a long piece of strong garden wire threaded through the tiny D rings on the outside back corners, halfway down - and then strung tightly to screw in eyelets on the wall- just a thought ;-)

Hapless gardener said...

Laura and Franny, thank you for both the empathy and advice. Yes, I think I'll have to do something far more sensible and secure the grow houses, and perhaps in that I'll find comfort to brave this most miserable weather!

Kate Ginty said...

Feeling your pain. I lost chives and borage the same way three years ago. It gets easier over time. Stay strong.

The Hapless Kitchen Gardener

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Bristol
I only feel hapless because some people make it look easy to grow 10 ft marrows or a banquet of greens whereas my courgettes got nabbed by killer slugs and I only got one raspberry. So tips and stories from people less hapless than I are more than welcome. As a disclaimer though, none of my comments should be taken as expert advice on which you can rely! © Unless stated otherwise, and with the exception of guest content where that guest retains copyright, all photos and posts are the copyright of Tom Carpen and may not be used without permission.