Not much I can do to protect in ground plants.

I have already lost my one Atlantic Giant Pumpkin and Big Max pumpkin to stem snap as well as 2 cukes. I can restart everything other than the Atlantic Giant as it's season is too long to restart.

The last 2 weeks or so have seen waaaay too much wind for a young garden. I have lost other, non veggie plants to stem snap as well.

Sucks, but this is Wisconsin where the weather is predictably unstable so...

The moral... grow extra and don't be in any hurry to give the extras away ;-)

Thankfully my buddy I gave 3 Atlantic Giants to just contacted me and has one left he has no room for and will give it back to me.

Still, if this wind keeps up...

justaguy2:

Yeah, the weather has just been really weird. We had heavy cold fog here (Sheboygan) Sunday and Monday, lows in the 40s Monday and Tuesday night, and now this big honking storm. Fortunately it's looking pretty good for the weekend and beyond so if we can just get past tonight it should settle down some.

Hopefully....

Knock on wood. ;)

Mike

Knocking on wood with you.

I brought all my potted plants into the garage but that's about all anyone can do. I took pictures of my garden about an hour ago, so if the worst happens...

A lot of events tonight are being cancelled including two high school graduations.

Tornado Watch number 358
NWS Storm Prediction Center Norman OK
1135 am CDT Thu Jun 7 2007

The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a
Tornado Watch for portions of

much of central and eastern Iowa
small part of northwest Illinois
part of western Upper Michigan
parts of southeastern Minnesota
much of western and northern Wisconsin
Lake Superior

Effective this Thursday morning and evening from 1135 am until
1000 PM CDT.

... This is a particularly dangerous situation...

Destructive tornadoes... large hail to 2.5 inches in diameter...
thunderstorm wind gusts to 80 mph... and dangerous lightning are
possible in these areas.

The Tornado Watch area is approximately along and 85 statute
miles east and west of a line from 25 miles north northeast of
Kennedy Wisconsin to 45 miles south southwest of Ottumwa Iowa.
For a complete depiction of the watch see the associated watch
outline update (wous64 kwns wou8).

Remember... a Tornado Watch means conditions are favorable for
tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch
area. Persons in these areas should be on the lookout for
threatening weather conditions and listen for later statements
and possible warnings.

Statement as of 3:14 PM CDT on June 07, 2007

... Wind Advisory remains in effect until 7 PM CDT this evening...

A Wind Advisory remains in effect until 7 PM CDT this evening.

Strong south winds in the 20 to 30 mph range with gust to as high
as 45 mph at times will persist late this afternoon into the evening
hours. The winds will diminish after 7 PM... but still be rather
breezy for the rest of the night.

A Wind Advisory means that sustained winds of at least 30 mph...
or gusts in excess of 45 mph... are expected. Winds this strong
can make driving difficult... especially for high profile
vehicles. Use extra caution.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/(p)
http://www.wunderground.com/about/data.asp(p)

sheboyganite chiming in........it is getting pretty late in the evening, MAYBE the "big" storms they have been calling all day will never get here. I know it's really warm out yet ( my weatherbug reads 82 @7:30pm) but the storms have not popped up yet!
I hope i am not wrong........we have had enough rain for a little while.
My garden seems to be well rooted, Nothing out of place - my only worry would be if we would get a large storm, we have a REALLY tall box -elder tree that could do some serious damage if she went over.

Hubby insisted we put lots of things in the garage and sheltered locations this evening. Probably wise. I didn't put any plants indoors, just moved the pots closer together and moved some on a rack down lower in case they go over. Put water in the my watering container so that it doesn't blow away, things like that. At least it is raining finally, it rained earlier this afternoon for all of about 5 minutes. I have been gardening in pots with some slightly unreliable Girl Scouts, and every time it rains that is less worry that all of our plants will die until the next time I go there. :-)

We are relying on rainbarrels for a lot of our watering this season so far, this should fill up the last barrel no problem. Hubby drags the water around the yard in 5 gallon buckets, I guess it is good exercise.

Marcia

We had a lot of branches that came down near where I live. When I got off of work at 11pm, it was storming. The wind was really blowing. It looked like sheets of rain going across the streets. I was worried about my hanging baskets, but they came thru ok. No major damage by me, but a few blocks away it was a mess and no electricity. I heard some parts of Wis. were really hit hard. They've been showing clips on the weather channel of Riverside Wi. I don't know where that is, but it looks horrible. I just heard there were 18 tornados reported in Wisconsin.
Hope everyone else came thru ok.

Kat

Okay, crisis averted. I think we missed most of the strong storms here. We did get a little thunder and lightning and some strong rain right about bedtime. And this morning a few of my tomato plants were ripped up a bit, and one of the new ones lost all of it's top leaves. I'll probably re-plant that one since it's still early in the season. It could have been much worst.

Mike