Uncategorized – Stacy on a Budget

Before I get into the damage that we had to our garden, I wanted to take the time to address the people who lost family, friends, their homes and cars.

The devastation that Hurricane Ian has left behind for so many people in the southwest part of Florida is heartbreaking. It is also extremely sad to drive around my area to see people’s furniture out at the street to be picked up. I cannot imagine having to do that. Physically, mentally and financially. You have people who have already suffered through a pandemic, loss of jobs, the rise of food and gas only to be hit by a hurricane of this magnitude to cause more suffering.

As for us, yes, we lost some of our garden from the 20 inches of rain that submerged our land, but we are very grateful that was the only thing that was damaged. Many didn’t make out as well as we did unfortunately.

Now on to our garden:

Hurricane Ian has come and gone and so has part of our garden. We had 3 days of torrential rains with 50mph winds and 70 – 90mph wind gusts in East Central Florida.

The garden was submerged by water and battered by winds. We watched the water as it got higher and higher to the point where we could no longer see the garden anymore. Lemmy The Lemon Tree, Jimmy The Lime Tree and Gloria The Plantain Tree were taking on water as well. There was nothing we could do but watch it happen and hope for the best at that point.

Wendy The Blood Orange tree is much taller than the other trees but we worried about it’s strength and if it would hold up with the flooding and wind. She did well but unfortunately lost the only orange that she was producing.

At one point we were no longer able to see Gloria as she had fallen over into the water. Lemmy & Jimmy were somewhat visible but we didn’t know for how long they would be able to hang on.

When the rain and wind subsided, Ron was able to rescue both Lemmy and Jimmy and pot them. Lemmy lost his lemons but the most important thing was being able to save the trees themselves.

As of right now, the ground is still somewhat wet but we’ve been able to get closer to the garden and we saw some tomatoes and peppers still hanging on! We were sure that nothing would be left but pleasantly surprised that we have some veggies surviving! I think that the next couple of days will answer our questions if the plants will continue to grow or if we will have to start over. Nonetheless, it is close to our winter garden season so we planned on planting a new crop soon and relocating the tomatoes and peppers.