Monday’s windstorm damage
I was sitting in the livingroom watching TV, when the satellite dish went out. The TV screen went black. I looked out the window to check the satellite dish, when I see the Poly-tunnel laying on its side against the little apple tree. I yelled to hubby what had happened as I ran outside. Hubby arrived a few minutes later with the camera. I had already flipped the Poly-tunnel upright and had straighten out most of the frame, when he took these photos. I was trying to wrangle the covering. The wind was ripping it from my hands. Two branches were damaged on the apple tree.
We were in shock that the winds pulled up the raised bed inside the Poly-tunnel. The sun was shining, but the winds were enough to knock us over. Our neighbor helped us fight the winds and put the covering back on the frame.
It moved the satellite dish out-of-place ,when the frame struck it. We placed all the plants against the red building to shelter them from the high winds. It was difficult to hold it in place as hubby tried to anchor it.
We have heavy rocks on the bottom frame. We anchored it in four places with nylon string on the outside.
We anchored it with nylon string in four places to the metal frame. The raised bed was anchored into the ground by stakes to begin with, but the winds just pulled them out of the ground. The covering was ripped in places. We just duct taped it back together.
Trees are down every where in our area. What was surprising to me was that our plastic picnic table and chairs in the back yard were undisturbed.We have had high winds off and on all week.
Posted on June 7, 2015, in Gardening. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
sliceofheaveninsweden 
Sorry to hear of your wind damage,hope it all recovers
Thank you! Today is a calm and sunny semi-cloudy day and 16 Celsius outside.It is suppose to be a small break in between storms. You just try and take advantage of the nice weather, while it last .
The Poly-tunnel seems to be holding up since we put it back together and re-anchored it. We were lucky because only one plant died. It was a cantelope plant.I still have one left.We were really lucky it wasn’t worse and that we were at home.
Honey
Sorry to hear that you have had bad weather…. Hopefully the weather will ease up as summer progress…. It is real ‘ifey ‘ in the states too…Chemtrails by day, wind, hail rain by night… Yesterday a storm system covered 5 states and contained some nasty ‘hot spots’ as they all them…. Thankfully, the worst missed us!
I am glad to hear that the storm system missed your area. I had heard about flooding in Texas…I did not realize that the storm covered 5 states. You expect that in the winter once in a decade. It just seems like our climate has changed world wide. It has been a strange spring and summer. We are in June and northren Sweden has been having snow storms still.I just wonder if this is our new normal.
I kept looking at the horizon this past week. This storm was scary, because the winds were so strong.Our windows shook.The winds were so loud. I read some articles that there was special alignments of the planets. I wonder if that is what kicked up these storms in combination with global warming. It is going to be interesting to see what kind of summer that we have this year.
Honey
The wind has been shockingly bad this year, it seems. Or maybe I’m simply more sensitive now because of my own endeavours with plastic frames and covers.
I’m glad you managed to sort out the polytunnel. Unbelievable that the wind even pulled up the raised beds, yet didn’t touch the table and chairs!
I hear you about these crazy winds. We tried to drive to pick up take out, but trees were blown down and fell over the road. We had to take back roads to get the highway into town..The wind gust would almost push our off the road. It was scary.
I hope that you think about anchoring your plastic frames down. I was holding the poly-tunnel as Hubby was anchoring it down. It acted like a kite or parachute and I litterally was lifted into the air. It freaked me out. Hubby was throwing heavy rocks on the metal to hold it down.He told me let it fly rather than you get hurt. I was laughing until I realized how dangerous the winds really were. We check where the Poly-tunnel is anchored every day now to make sure it is okay.
We were really lucky.
Honey
My frame is okay, thanks. I weighed it down with bags of gravel and compost but the cover got torn to shreds back in March. The company sent me a replacement but I don’t think I can put it up…. Every time I think maybe the wind has stopped for a few months, whoosh it is back again.
Anyway, your husband is right: better save yourself rather than a piece of plastic 😉
You never posted anything about the cover being damaged on your Blog.We have finally have calm weather this week and sunshine. It is so nice not to worry about the Poly-tunnel.We thought we put it in a spot that would protect it from strong winds since it was against the furnace shed and the house.
I know the plastic is just a thing, but when the wind lifts you upyour instinct it to hang on tight LOL.
It is afterwards that you think,” what in the H*** was I thinking”!
Honey
Never mind that you missed the post I wrote on the demise of my greenhouse.
I guess wind can get anywhere… Glad the weather is better this week anyway 🙂