Weather casualties

Oooh, it's been a hell of a storm here in Ireland over last week or so.  Nothing unusual as far as weather here goes, but there are some conclusions to be drawn regards gardening..

My tiny (still!) balcony garden survived it quite well, but some losses are, I guess, inevitable.

1.  Raspberry bucket developed a nice pond of rainwater.  As I neglected piercing bottom of the bucket when I planted the bush, excess water had no way of flowing away.  I hoped I would not encounter this problem, with the bucket being decent size, but, eeeeh, I was wrong. 

TIP:  make sure you pierce all your containers to allow drainage.  Whatever their size.

I simply poured the little lake out, but the soil is still awfully waterlogged and I fear it does not do much good to my brave little plant...  Fingers crossed for its survival.


2. I've moved a new bean plant (maybe 10 cm high) outside just before the weather turned nasty and its leaves got broken within the first day.  The plant has been quickly evacuated and thrives, but it confronts me with a serious question - how to protect grown plants against strong winds.  I won't be able to simply move them indoors once they get bigger, because there will be no space left for me to live in, and the thought of nurtured plants being lost doesn't give me much joy either.  Time for some brainstorming :)

Anyone has a useful tip how to tackle this problem?

Garden under the weather

I'm just discovering one aspect of gardening I wasn't aware of before.

What can weather do to your plants???

I live in Ireland, right at the oceanside.  This equals magnificent view from sitting room, but it also means terrible windstorms, pretty often, too.  Most of my plants live on the balcony, right out there in this terrible, terrible conditions... 

I literally wake up at night, listen to the howling wind and think - will my radishes survive???

You can guess the weather has been pretty rough here recently...

So far plants are doing well.  I have put all the pots inside a cardboard box, so it's a bit harder for the wind to scatter them around.  It gets wet, but it does the job.  So far none of my neighbours has been killed by a flower pot falling from above... 

Funny, I never suspected worrying about the weather will be a part of gardening, but somehow now it seems pretty obvious. 

Oh, and we don't get tornadoes (such as the one on today's picture) around here.  I just wanted to add some drama... :)