Hail, hail and more hail.....

brennertheoviv

The other evening, the sky hailed on this area with a velocity and a size of icy bullets that made it sound like one of the raids on the poor Syrians.  This went on for 10 minutes with the result that the garden I had been rather proud of this year was reduced to heaps of tattered compost.

As I begin to clear the mess away, I note that the ground has been battered into something resembling lumpy cement.

My question: what to do now?  There is very little left so do I cut down to the base or just pretend it was a rather drastic Chelsea chop?  How long will it take for anything to show itself again?  Presumably things like raspberries, blackberries, blackcurrants that have been stripped will not refruit this year.  And I wonder whether tomato plants, peppers etc. will shoot again from the base if their roots are still OK.  And should I dig over the ground.  I hesitate to do this as even where I had put in markers for the dahlias, they have been jumped out of the ground and I would hate to chop off any new growth.

Any advice would be most helpful.  Thanks.

Blue Onion

Where are you that you have tomatoes and peppers outside already? 

I'd give it two weeks or so before doing anything drastic.. nature is pretty resilient.  Most things will recover fine, except maybe a bit more scraggly leaved.  

brennertheoviv

I'm in Switzerland.  We had a very warm spell in April and I put them in then.  Normally they would have gone in this month.  All WERE doing well!!  I figured a couple of weeks -- and then we shall see.  Thanks!

Blue Onion

I get hit with a hail storm every summer once or twice.. but usually by the things are larger and a bit more resilient that time of year.  Tomatoes and such may resprout.. but you may plan a trip to the GC for replacements, just in case.  Many shrubs and trees will put out a second set of leaves if damaged in spring, but as you mentioned, it will likely be at the cost of the fruit.  

What a disappoint though.  I've gone out in a hail storm A few times to throw bedsheets over my veg patch, if I happen to be home at the time and notice it starting.  

Obelixx

This happened to me one May when I was away at Chelsea Flower Show.  Came hom et find the garden devastated by a tornado driven hailstorm.   I lost all the baby toms, cucs and squashes that were sat out in pots in a supposedly sheltered spot waiting to be planted out.

The brassicas were shredded but most recovered, the rhubarb patch looked like it had been nuked but I cut it all back and fed it and that regrew.  The hostas in about 20 big ceramic pots had one leaf between them left unshredded so I cut them back completely and fed them and they recovered.   The currants recovered but were left with pitted scars like acne all up their stems as were the roses and some other shrubs.   We grew autumn raspberries and they fruited well but the summer ones didn't.   No damsons or crab apples that year.