Tuesday 24 March 2009

Nature sticks it to my Food factory.

So like any other day, I return from work last night after a long slog, hoping to kick back and relax before the next instalment of Groundhog Day, the elements provided a nasty surprise for me when I got home.

Apparently the wind picked up yesterday afternoon, and during the course of the evening it caught hold of my little greenhouse and tossed it about for a while. There was no damage as such to the greenhouse but inside was a whole different story.

The Staging at the back of the greenhouse had been knocked for six and along with it the majority of my seedlings that were coming on a treat. They had been upturned in their pots and scattered all over the floor.

To say I was major league peeved off would be any understatement. I’ve lost all my salads, Sage, Thyme and Tomatoes (except a few tomato's on a windowsill indoors). I managed to save about half of the kohlrabi and some of the basil looked salvable.

Thankfully the leeks were ok; they had been on the bottom shelf and managed to avoid natures little rabbit punch to the solar plexus.

I went into salvage mode, repotted the Basil, firmed down the few kohlrabi that survived the assault and threw the rest into a large sack for the local recycling centre.

The survivors got special treatment last night and spent the night in the comfort of my house. My wife must have felt pity for me because she didn't complain about the uninvited guests and I got a hug which cheered me up.

Lessons Learned: No point in crying over spilled milk. I'm going to move the greenhouse into another location and bolt it down so securely, that even if we get a storm of biblical proportions my greenhouse will remain a safe haven for the seeds I'll be sowing this evening. Just for that Mother Nature, I'll not be recycling for a week.

5 comments:

  1. I feel gutted for you! It is a major setback but at least you managed some salvage. It can only be onwards and upwards from here, whu do you not put up some photos on the blog?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah well Peggy, you said we might learn from each others experiences. Heres what I have learned and you nodoubt already know through common sense rather than experience.

    Valuable lessons have been learned #1

    As a rule of thumb, greenhouses should be secured to the ground during adverse weather conditions.

    :o) - Luckily I planted out the peas on Sunday and the broadbeans so they were not in there. I leave work in 45 minutes. I shall take a few snaps of the plot and the survivors from yesterdays aftermath.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Awwww, I do feel for you, but you have the right attitude! Sow some more, they will soon catch up. I always maintain that you have to make mistakes to learn from them. I know that I have made plenty!! lol. Tatty

    ReplyDelete
  4. Peggy - I hope you like them.

    Thanks Tatty - It annoyed the hell out of me for about five minutes then I thought no point in looking back. Just plant some more and secure the greenhouse. But It'll be tomorrow now because Ive been practicing my sons spelling for his test on Friday, cooking dinner and blogging. I have to start work at 7 am tomorrow so it can wait another day.

    ReplyDelete
  5. How incredibly frustrating! I'm so sorry. Hope you get to sort it all out. There's no hurry, at least - you can catch up with all those seedlings if you resow.

    ReplyDelete

Hi from Cazaux's Food Factory,

Hope you enjoyed the post, feel free to say hi, laugh at my ramblings, ask a question etc.

Regards,

CFF