Article Contributed on: 7/25/2009 3:35:40 PM
Dear Gardeners,
We were visited by a terrible thunderstorm on Monday night which hit Arvada, Golden Lakewood, and Wheat Ridge in Jefferson County especially hard. The storm devastated the gardens of many Jeffco residents including those of our Colorado Master Gardeners. Here are some of their accounts. As you will read, we are an optimistic bunch; we know life has cycles and while we mourn our losses, we also count our blessings.
Jerry Peterson:
My home in Arvada was hit by the wind and hail storm. The bad news: my veggie garden was devastated, shredded, and cut to ribbons. My wild flower garden looks like a Humvee ran over it , my perennials are in need of some major cleanup and cutback.
The good news: our cars were safe in the garage, we had no broken windows or other damage.
Although I'm upset about losing most of my plants, I feel very fortunate when everywhere we look, there are broken windows, downed trees and crushed roofs. My rhubarb will grow back. I can plant another veggie garden next year. What do I have to gripe about?
Loay Boggess:
We live NE of Jewell and Pierce. Damage here about is not as severe. We heard the warning sirens and headed for the basement. We couldn't see anything because of the hail and the amazing amounts of rain. I awoke to 6 inch 'icebergs' behind the backyard where the hail had washed up against the retaining wall. I have a badly damaged front yard veggie garden; the back yard veggies faired better. The plants that faired better were sheltered a bit by fences, bushes or trees.
I went to Kaiser on Alameda the morning after, and noticed that the damage was much worse west of Wadsworth. Kaiser lost 5 trees along the street. A tree on Pierce was hit by lightning and split in half. I saw, near Alameda and Balsam, trees that were denuded at the tops; old trees twisted, broken off and leafless. Kendrick Lake's xeric garden is mostly shredded to a pulp. Heart sickening. I am so sorry for everyone's losses. Those helpless hurt feelings are hard to deal with.
Joyce D'Agostino:
I live in Wheat Ridge, not far from what they said was the center of it all. My garden is also pretty much gone. Some of the plants were hit so hard they literally vanished into a pile of shreds. All of my heirloom tomatoes were lost, along with everything else.
A few herbs are standing - lemon thyme, mint, oregano and two plants that were in wall of waters survived. Everything else was literally shredded.
Our house had torn screens and on the North side, the siding was riddled with holes. I grew up in Kansas and had never heard a storm like that. It sounded like someone throwing rocks at the house. Sorry to all of you who have lost their gardens. I certainly feel your pain!
Peter Bockenthien:
My garden in South Lakewood is gone. I'm sure many others lost theirs as well. I'm holding a funeral at my place and then walking over to Kendrick Lake to survey the damage.
Our permanent gardens and perennials are gone as well. I've never seen
an Agave leaf split in two. Some look like someone took scissors to
them. I'm stunned into disbelief. I've never seen anything like that. I was certain it was a
tornado because it was coming down sideways and nothing but an
extremely loud roar.
On the positive side it sure smells nice. That's because it's crushed veggie and herb leafs galore. And hey, no more weeds! Another positive note: the compost pile is going to be fantastic.
Dave Moland:
My sincere sympathy to those who lost gardens in Monday night's storm. I was lucky to escape this time, but have had several similar experiences in past years with wind and hail. However, I have never had big trees uprooted, as happened in this storm. My wife and I both come from farm families, where hailstorms can mean not only smashed gardens and crops, but also loss of income. Gathering clouds and the ominous sound of the first hailstones have always brought us running to the windows and doors, as if there were something we could do to prevent it.
The weather people are saying that most of the damage was probably caused by a "microburst" event. These generally result in straight winds that topple trees in one direction, and wind gusts may in some cases exceed tornado wind speeds. My thoughts in the aftermath of the storm are expressed in this Haiku poem:
Requiem for a Garden
Wind, hail, smash gardens
Time will heal, but now we mourn
Mother Nature rules