Here's a glimpse of what hail does to hostas. Imagine this carnage across the entire yard. It's hard to get my mind around the scope of the damage. Because the damage was so bad, it really brought home the point of how bad things could have been. I just have to keep reminding myself that we're alive, and our house is still standing. That's better than a lot of other people had it. I guess between hail and a tornado, I'll take the hail.

The plant formerly known as Alocasia 'Portora'.


Red banana

Agave


What used to be a potted hosta - no idea where all the soil went, it's just gone!

Even in the dark, we knew there was going to be a lot of damage with this much hail.

This deck debris was our first clue what had happened to all the trees.


We noticed the smell right away. Very heavy, almost nauseating smell of chlorophyll from all the shredded leaves, with just a hint of pine thrown in the mix.

Daylight showed us a lot more debris. Everything - lawns, plants, streets, houses, cars, was covered in a carpet of leaves and twigs.

Big Daddy not so big anymore


nor is Blue Mammoth quite so mammoth


But pieces of buildings remind us it could have been whole buildings...


and things like having your hose frozen to the ground in a block of melted hail
.

are minor inconveniences compared to the tragedy that other areas experienced.

Oh, Red ... what can I say? I know it isn't as bad as being blown away in a tornado, but it's still very bad. I know Nature will recover but, still, it makes me sad.

I'm in a better mental place today than I was yesterday. There have been some less-than-stoic moments, but I'm moving forward as best I can.

We thought we had completely escaped dealing with house damage, but not quite. It seems all the screens on the front of our house have multiple golf-ball size holes in them and all the molding around the doors and windows has chunks out of it. We'll need to go around and do a thorough inspection, but I almost don't want to know. Relatively small stuff, but big hassle, and I'm too tired to deal at the moment.

The yard cleanup is going, um, well... it's going anyway. The heavy debris is pulled off to the side so the surviving plants aren't smothered to death, and the smaller stuff is getting bagged up and dragged to the curb. 22 contractor bags and counting, so far. Three days of warm weather later, and the block of hail is still not completely gone. I think it's taunting me.

The neighborhood noise has changed over from constant chain saws to more mowers and blowers. Each driveway has a large stack of bags waiting for trash pickup. The garbage men better eat their Wheaties - it's going to be a tough week for them.

And it's storming here again this morning ... and more on the way tomorrow. Sigh! To say this is the worst storm season on record is an understatement.

Hang in there.

Hopefully we stick to plain old non-violent thunderstorms from now on. Be safe.

They've now confirmed it was a supercell that went through Knoxville, and a tornado definitely touched down a bit south and east of where we are.

Here's a video someone posted on YouTube of the hail as it happened. It shows how fast the debris & hail piled up.



And here's a video of the aftermath. Check out all the green roofs in this neighborhood.

How are you doing over there, Red?

Hey Tee,

Things are looking a little cleaner here. I did a week long debris-athon and have mowed twice, so the initial bruised gray-green color of the lawn is gone. Having a large swath of "normal" is helping the yard look much better overall. I bought some annuals to provide a little color and fill some of the big gaps. It's nice to have a few new plants without holes in them. I think most of the original plants will eventually recover even though they look quite pathetic now. There will be some tough decisions later on with Japanese maples and such, since their shape is now permanently deformed.

Luckily, most of the plants I was holding for a client were under the deck. A couple of her hostas will have to grow some leaves before I can identify them as the tags disappeared in the storm and there are just nubs left of the plants.

The house actually has quite a bit of small damage - window screens, moldings, gutters, etc. Other than the screens, you don't really notice the damage from the street. The biggest house concern right now is the roof. It looks like a some of the granular coating on the shingles got pummelled off and there are scattered divets, so we have to wait for a roof inspection to see what the plan should be. It would stink if we had to reroof, as the roofers would probably finish crushing the plants that are left. Not sure what the timeframe on the insurance folks will be. I know someone with a hail damaged car that called right away after the storm, and the adjuster won't even get out to see them until July 1st! I'm guessing the people with large trees on top of their houses and cars will get first dibs on the adjusters, as it should be. We had very heavy rain the other day, and nothing is dripping on our heads, so we can wait.

How are things in your neck of the woods?

Hail can, indeed, do so much damage. I'm glad your roof is not leaking! That would be adding insult to injury.

We are okay over here. A lot of the clean-up of downed trees and limbs has been completed. A block over they are replacing the entire roof and structure below it of a two-story home down to the ceiling of the rooms below. A gigantic pine tree was uprooted and went over on them.

Finally having some beautiful weather. There was flooding around but that has subsided although Memphis and along the Mississippi is not having it so good now. Lots of serious flooding.

It sounds as if your clean-up efforts have yielded a lot of cautious optimism about your landscape and plants. I am so happy to hear that.

I am also very tired of "weather".

Very glad you're OK. Yikes about the neighbor's pine tree! In our first house in Atlanta, we had a pine tree removed very soon after we moved in. It was in the perfect spot to fall on our bedroom. When Hurricane Opal came through later, we were very glad we did.

The flooding in Memphis -yet again - that's just heartbreaking stuff. It ruins EVERYTHING and they hadn't finished fixing all the damage from last time there was major flooding. The commercial/tourist kind of stuff got done, but many of the more modest homes have sat vacant ever since. How do you even work up the courage to rebuild or renovate when floods keep happening?

Lots of people hurting already from the economy, and it seems like there's one weather event after another, and no part of the country has been spared. At least this will be good news for home builders and contractors that desperately need the work.

Heard from the insurance field adjuster last night and she'll be out here in less than 2 weeks! She will be seeing two other people in my neighborhood the same day, so I'm getting the benefit of these other people having called earlier.

Cautious optimism about the yard is a very good way to put it. My alocasia that was completely shredded is putting out a new leaf, and 7 of the hostas have new leaves, so they must have taken me seriously when I told them to "Get busy living, or get busy dying!". Guess I watched the Shawshank Redemption too many times.

Red,

It is good to see you are on your way to recovery and the plants too.

Sarge

Hi, Sarge! How goes it with you?

I am doing good, it has been a while but i am back posting once again and enjoying life as it is .

Sarge

Very glad you're back. Everyone has been quiet lately - hope they're all okay. We've had one round of storms after another, and then there's all the other stuff life throws at you.

Here's the kind of longer-term damage I'm talking about with the Japanese maples...



and my Hydrangea paniculatas...


The herbaceous plants and butterfly bushes look just as bad, (Here's a remant of my Black Jack sedum)
,
but any of those that survived the initial pounding can be pruned back hard and will look good again one day. You just can't prune a JM to the ground and start over. It's a waiting game now to see which branches die back and what is left to work with.

Oh pooh, Red.