We returned from our holidays two days ago and couldn't wait to go to the garden. We've heard about devastating storms in Switzerland during the week, and we were certain that our region was affected too and that there were some damages to our garden. Yesterday evening I went to check it out, and honestly I don't even know what I was expecting, but the damages surprised me. It wasn't so bad outside. Besides cucumbers and some flowers that bended over and were laying on the ground I didn't see anything special. The greenhouses took the hit badly. The wind was about 140km/h, so I guess we should have expected it, but when you see it, it feels somehow surreal.
I will show you the damages, but first I'd like to show you the positive side, so let's see what I harvested last night.
I planted about 20 kohlrabies in April, I guess. Until now, I only harvested a couple of them as they didn't grow because it was too hot for them. The temperatures are now more bearable, and they took off. I love kohlrabies and I was happy to harvest a couple yesterday. The rest is growing nicely, but I let them there and will take them when needed.
My only eggplant plant makes me happy this year. As soon as I harvest an eggplant it will push a couple of flowers and give me more in about 2 weeks. I already harvested 4 eggplants and there are 2 more growing. Our neighbours have plants that grow up to 1 meter or more. Ours is kind of tiny, but keeps producing which is nice.
Before we left I have harvested all zucchinis. You take the fruit and twist it, and it should come off easily. That's normally the case, but this time I managed to break the plant in half. It was a huge fruit and didn't want to come off easily. I put a stick next to the plant, so that it can rest on it and secured it with a plastic band. I had no idea if it will survive or not. It did and it gives me more zucchinis 😊 Surprising is that it even survived the storm...
The yellow ones are living their best life...
I thought that zucchini season was over, but I was wrong.
I have also harvested all chilli peppers and after 10 days there are so many more. I know they don't really look like chilli peppers, but believe me that they are HOT. I don't know what sort they are as there must have been a mix up with the seeds because I was expecting something completely different based on the package.
Cucumbers inside of the greenhouse keep growing even though their vines are not tangled because of the wind. It's difficult to find the fruit, but I have managed to see a few of them.
Hidden behind many leaves, I wonder how many more there are. I will have to make a proper inspection soon...
Some of my Hokkaido got cross-pollinated with something else. These looked like Hokkaido before we left, and now this was waiting for me. Exciting! I wonder how it will taste...
Another one with interesting pattern...
And here are my proper Hokkaidos. I think they are ripe already, but I will leave them on the plant for time being.
Butternuts are making me happy...
I have found one which snipped off the vine and took it home yesterday.
And these are the tomatoes that I harvested. Quite few of them split because they were too ripe and I guess that our neighbour didn't water them properly. It doesn't matter though as it's only a cosmetic issue.
The basil is still going strong. I didn't harvest it yesterday because I was too busy to make pesto in the evening, but I will have to harvest it this week as I'll be leaving for 2 weeks on Sunday and it would be wasted when I'll come back.
It's the first year when my elderflower berries got the chance to ripe. I don't know why birds didn't eat them by now as usually the berries don't stand a chance.
Every year, I'm waiting for my Japanese Anemone to flower. It's such a wonderful flower that blooms in late summer and early autumn.
My Aster surprise me with many blooms. It was flowering here and there when we left, but now it's at its best. I might dig out the roots and take a part home to put in the garden bed.
And now to the damage...
The first greenhouse with tomatoes isn't too bad and we can still repair it.
The second greenhouse with cucumbers and peppers however didn't end up so well. You can't see it here, but even the walls are broken. They are hanging on the construction, but need to be repaired. The roof will need to be exchanged as it's completely broken.
Here you can see the other side where the wall is broken off and somehow hangs on the construction. The cucumbers didn't mind the storm at all and happily keep climbing out of the window. I wonder if cucumbers are not holding everything together. Their vines are strong, so it can be why the walls didn't fall out completely yet.
And this is the inside...
When I was there it was windy and it was really unstable. I had to harvest the volunteer tomatoes and take some photos of cucumbers, so I went inside and one of these parts hit me in the face, so I have a bloody scratch on my forehead surrounded by a bruise.
Later today, we will go to the garden together with my husband to see what we can do. I guess we will simply take some measurements and purchase new parts for the roof and it doesn't look like we can repair it.
Seeing damages all over Switzerland with people who lost roofs from their houses or their cars were taken by floods, I think that our damages are not too bad. It's really only the greenhouses and luckily our house is untouched. There are some damages in the garden too, but it's nothing that can't be repaired.
We will do the repairs and we will be ready for the next gardening season.
Thank you for reading!
See you next time...
