I woke up today to the sound of heavy furniture being moved through the house. Turns out it was NOT actually my husband doing some redecorating after all, but a massive rain shower that turned to a thunder storm and then… hail. We’ve had beautiful, mild weather the past week or so, and had decreased our garden watering to every other day. The plants seemed happy (other than the peach tree, which I’ll get to in a moment), and so were we. When we saw the forecast called for rain today and tomorrow I did not mind a bit. Honestly, I’m enjoying those days when the rain forces me to stay inside and clean (ugh), or cook (yay!), or tackle any of the other dozens of projects that need attending. (And there is one major project which I’ll explain below.) Add in the fact that the rain would take care of our plants’ watering for the next few days and I was down. No rainy day blues for this lady.

But today was a different story. We now have a deck that’s covered in crates of growing vegetables and herbs and hail could do a lot of damage to every single one of them. I’d heard a similar horror story on one of my go-to podcasts, The Prairie Homestead, where the farmer lost her entire crop of vegetables to a major hail storm as she stood there and just watched. Now, I’m not the most alert when I wake up. And definitely don’t have problem-solving skills 10 minutes after jumping out of bed. So imagine me- bleary eyed and confused- running out into a hail storm in my pjs and just…standing there. I didn’t know what to do! There’s not enough room in the house for all these crates, which were also saturated and would damage the floors. And I didn’t have tarps handy or the hoop structures in place to spread them over. So I had to do what the podcaster did; just stand there to watch and cross my fingers. The great (GREAT), news is that nothing seems to have been damaged now that the storms have passed. I am beyond relieved, since I have become quite protective of these little growing things, most of which I grew from seeds. To better explain my initial dismay, let me outline what we have at stake (har har).

• Basil
  • One of the few things I was successful at growing in Brooklyn, and have developed a little attachment with. (Not to mention we’re hooked on our weekly basil/walnut pesto for our pastas and salads.) We have 3 containers of this to withstand our constant harvesting.
• Dill
  • It’s doing okay– even before the hail storm. But if I can make just ONE salmon and potato salad dinner with tons of my homegrown dill, it will have been worth it.
• Lavender
  • One of the best scents out there, plus it helps to deter “bad” insects from the rest of the plants.
• Marigolds
  • For fun! And a pop of color. Maybe we’ll feed them to the ducks at the end of the season.
• Carrots
  • Not one of my favorite vegetables, gotta admit. But maybe that’s because I’ve rarely had them fresh enough to appreciate their potential. We have 2 crates of these- enough for an investment but not too much in case I decide I still don’t love them after this experiment.
• Tomatoes:
  • Better Boy and Sweet 100 (cherry) – bought as a seedling at a nursery.
  • Sun Gold – 3 separate tomato plants grown from seeds (which cost me a pretty penny, but are apparently one of the best tasting small tomatoes out there).
  • *I also spent HOURS this week watching videos on pruning tomato plants (who knew? You did? Well, it was news to me), and carefully trimming mine.
• Scallions/radishes:
  • These share the space in a raised planter; the one and only “expensive” container I bought from a local builder. I planted these mid-Spring with my mother who was visiting, since they don’t love heat and grow quickly. We’ve already been enjoying them in salads and pastas!
• Peas
  • Sugar Ann and Little Marvel – both planted as seeds and are SO fun to watch grow. I overturned small tomato cages and tied the spikes together at the peak, sort of like a teepee. This works as a trellis for them and creates a nice aesthetic between the tomato plants with the cages inverted the opposite way. They have tiny “hands” that extend from the tips of their shoots that grab onto whatever they can, which secures them to a support and keeps the pods from lying flat on the ground.
• Jalapeños
  • Two plants bought as seedlings from a nursery and are doing so well! I’m not a total “heat freak” when it comes to spicy foods, but I bet if I grow them myself I’ll learn to like them really fast. Plus, my husband loves them.
• Zucchini
  • Just one single plant this year. It’s sort of an experiment and I don’t want to end up with so many that I don’t know what to do with them.
• Kale
  • Grown from my sister’s seeds harvested from her own crop! These crates now live indoors since kale doesn’t love heat, so luckily this escaped any hail damage. I’m going to attempt the seed harvesting myself this year, letting the kale grow pods which I’ll then cut off, dry, and extract seeds from. And apparently the pods taste like broccoli florets, which we can maybe even sauté.
• Cucumbers
  • Just planted last week. We’ll see if they sprout after Sadie used the crate as a launching pad.
• Potatoes!!
  • This was one my husband and I agreed on trying for sure. They’re so versatile and last a long time after harvesting, so we figured it was worth the time to experiment. My first batch of seed potatoes I ordered sat out in the rain and then sun on our back deck for days- without us realizing they’d been delivered. They STANK and were moldy so even I knew planting them wasn’t going to work. I reached out to the company, Urban Farmer, and they sent me a new batch for free! Since potato plants can get pretty big pretty fast, I opted for fabric grow bags instead of the crates- another experiment. We just got them into the dirt a few days ago so there’s not much to see yet. I’m hoping the torrential rain and hail didn’t disrupt any tender growth…

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The hail storm (and the panic that ensued), confirmed that a greenhouse is the next investment. While the plants survived this time, I wonder if they’d withstand a second pelting. While pests are usually another issue, so far we don’t seem to have that problem. I think I have to credit that to Sadie who we’ve nicknamed “Killer.” My mom won’t like reading this part, but Sadie kills a couple of chipmunks and moles each week, and those are only the ones we know about. I think the bunnies have learned to stay away, now that she’s on the prowl, which is great news for our veggies. I do also wonder if the lack of insect pests is due in part to the new fertilizer I’ve been using: a liquid fish and kelp emulsion. It smells like the sea, for better or worse, but apparently does wonders for soil health, which in turn prevents most infestations. Obviously once we get a greenhouse I won’t have to worry at all about hail, bunnies, beetles, or even a misplaced Sadie paw as she’s on the war path. The main thing will be watering, which we’ve already gotten in the habit of doing by hand anyway. I wonder if I’ll still grow things in crates on the deck, since I really like looking out the back door at them, or sitting in the Adirondack chairs with my husband in the evenings, admiring the plants’ progress.

Sadly, our peach tree is also right in view of the deck, and it’s not doing so well. Every day there are more leaves and under-developed peaches lying on the ground below it, and we don’t know what to do. We followed the care instructions to a tee and it’s planted in area with plenty of sun and room for root growth. I’ve made a couple calls to the landscaping company who grew and installed it, but they have yet to come see it for themselves. I’m trying to set this particular worry aside, since there’s nothing I can do, and so many other plants to tend to.

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Now for The Project. Before I start, I’ll say this, “It’s gorgeous and I’m grateful.” (I’ve been repeating that like a mantra this past week: “It’s gorgeous and I’m grateful. It’s gorgeous and I’m grateful.”) When we moved into the house, the two design upgrades I wanted to make were changing the kitchen backsplash and remodeling the downstairs bathroom/laundry room. We hired an independent contractor for the tile and were really pleased with the end result. I then consulted him about the bathroom, which had laminate floors and a vanity that didn’t quite work for us aesthetically. He gave us a reasonable quote for doing the whole remodel himself: tiling the floor, replacing the vanity with a pedestal sink, and installing wainscotting panels on the walls. I bought the supplies online, making sure they were delivered in time for his visit. We moved all the appliances out: the washer/dryer, the vanity, the toilet- most of which sat in my husband’s office next door. (He was a trooper and moved his work station to the kitchen for the week of the project’s duration, and didn’t complain once.) I LOVE how the tile floor turned out, which was phase 1. Walking across tile instead of laminate in bare feet is so much more pleasant! Plus, easier to clean, in my opinion. I decided to paint the upper section of the wall to contrast against the wainscotting, so did that in the days between his first and second visit. I chose the same whitened sage that I used for the upstairs bathroom, and love the subtle green against the black and white tiles. We were without a washer/dryer and sink for that week, which is not the worst possible thing, but definitely made us more grateful for our normal setup. Then this past weekend, our contractor came back to install the panels and reinstall the sink and washer/dryer. My husband stuck his head in to check the progress a few times, and pretty quickly told me not to look. It’s a tiny space to maneuver and the panels were getting wedged into place with no wiggle room, gouging the freshly-painted walls in the process. Apparently the floors aren’t level and the walls have a slight “wave” to them, which made the installation even harder. He eventually managed this step as best he could, but it was a long and stressful process. Lastly, the sink I’d ordered doesn’t quite fit the plumbing and we realized that it would leak if we tried to hook it up as is. The contractor cleaned up his supplies and said he’d send his plumber friend over to look at the issue. I took some deep breaths before heading in, and as I said above, “It’s gorgeous and I’m grateful.” The elements are all there and I’m very happy with the design. But the caulking wasn’t finished (I think the contractor was stressed and needed to just call it quits), the gouges in the walls were pretty deep, and the sink was unusable. A few days later, I’ve calmed down and am appreciating having a working laundry room again, especially one that’s so lovely. We went out and bought a caulking gun, and thankfully I have a lot of extra paint. So as soon as I sign off here, I’m going to suit up in my father’s old painting shirt, put on some British TV, and get to work. As with the gardens, I feel that getting your hands dirty helps you to “earn” your space. I really don’t mind work, and I even love the calming effect of small-scale tinkering and painting. It would be great if I could then wash the caulk off my hands just a few feet away, but… it’s all good. We’re still waiting for that plumber to call us back but I’m going to trust this will all work out soon. I might even take my neighbor up on his offer to ask him for reliable laborers, since he’s been meticulously building up rolodex while he builds his new house.

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Lastly, the ducks are wonderful and funny. We had some friends visit for a night and they brought their 2 year old son, who couldn’t get enough of them. I can’t say I blame him. My husband and I check on them every few hours, and usually spend time in their run with a cocktail most evenings. The ducks still don’t love to be touched, but they do seem to love us being near them. They’ll peck at our feet or our pockets, looking for treats, or maybe that’s their way of saying hello. They had their 8 week birthday on Thursday, which means they’re fully feathered! We still have about 6 weeks to go before they lay eggs, but seeing how full our days are here, I know that we’ll be eating fresh herbed omelettes before we know it.