Hail and Hail and Hail, Oh My

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My. It's scary to think about any direct wild animal encounter. Doubtful it will happen to you. Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man met up with a Lion, but we all know he was friendly and cowardly.

How about a different scary encounter, a weather one that wakes you up from a deep sleep at 1:15 in the morning? This time of the gardening season the sounds are undeniably apparent after one, maybe two hits on the roof.

In less then thirty seconds I was fully awake - then up and landed at the patio door to experience the sad crescendo of large, marble sized pellets of destructive hail assaulting the landscape. If you live in the Baker to central Denver to Stapleton neighborhoods, you may be in the same sleep deprived, sad about your landscape state of mind.

Between the leaf litter and battered perennials, it's hard to imagine enjoying dinner outside soon on a quiet summer evening. That will happen for all of us, but what's to be done to a hail damaged landscape in the meantime?

• Call your trusted tree care company to get in their queue if you see tree limb damage that isn't easily reachable for DIY pruning. No damage for us this time. We had limb damage from last week's storm and it was pruned recently by our competent, experienced, tree professional named Daniel. 
• For roof and automobile damage, also make the calls. Careful not to let anyone who knocks or calls in the next few weeks sell you a new roof, you know the drill. NO kidding, while writing this blog we had a knock from a fellow wearing an official roofing company shirt with a drone who was ready to send it up and view our roof - at no charge. He used the neighbor's name to start the conversation. We passed.
• Once things dry out, pick up excess leaf matter around trees, sidewalks and patios. Toss it all in the compost pile.
• Inspect your plants. Careful not to walk on wet beds, sometimes it's unavoidable. We had covered some of the newest plantings so I was anxious to remove the covers to let them dry for the next time (which is later today and the week, according to the weather folks). 
• Any broken stems on perennials can be carefully removed, try to let as much of the undamaged foliage remain so it can continue to grow and photosynthesize which generates more food for itself. If the plant has naked stems and very few or no leaves left, it might be a gonner. But I'd still wait a few weeks to see if it recovers before buying new plants.
• Annual vegetables are probably toast unless you covered. Plenty of time to re-seed and buy more transplants. Same for annual ornamentals in the ground or containers.
• I've read both schools of thought about applying a light fertilizer to damaged plants after a hail event. Some say go ahead, other reputable sites say no need. To be continued. 
• The tattered fall planted garlic may be okay, smaller bulbs a big possibility. I plan on removing the heavy leaf mulch tomorrow so the bulbs won't remain too wet which can lead to bulb rot and or poor curing once harvested (in another month or so). 

Damage doesn't look too bad in this early photo, closer inspection tells a different story

The large shade cloth saved 85 percent of the herb bed

I'm MOST worried about the fall planted garlic, it took a major hit, should have covered!