it makes me appreciate when things do survive here, it really is beating the odds. We got hail earlier this year, things recovered, then it hailed again a month later.

I honestly consider hail exposure when picking a planting location, especially for plants I consider more precious. This week i've pulled all my planters close to house to keep them protected. I got one of those giant pumpkins started and have the pumpkin itself covered with a wooden tent sign just for hail, although its leaves are punctured.

I quit Calgary, twice. What a horrid environment and I mean both weather and to live in.

They had a foot of hail yesterday evening just 15 minutes away from me, http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/08/05/calgary-storm-ripped-the-roof-right-off-apartment-building

I am so lucky it didn't get my yard this time.

Good call SCG. I wish to end up on Vancouver Island one day, although I hear they had a bad drought this year.

This all reminds me of that crazy heavy snowfall last year in September, then everything warmed up and it was beautiful for the next month or more

SCG, my friend, please rub it in more!!! LOL

OK, perhaps when I retire, I will move to somewhere with less harsh weather... I must say that apart from the horrid weather, I do enjoy living here in Calgary!! :-)

Oh boy, Prairie northrose, that Snowtember last year was rough!!! Poor trees!!! So many were damaged as a result... and the City now has to pay millions to replace them! Yikes...

HOSTILE is the only word that I have got this ridiculous weather here!!!

Equanimity is the best approach. I got hit in early July but was spared this hail. Most of my garden has come back more or less.

bluegoat_gw, I was hit by hail once in July, and the twice over two consecutive days this past week. It's a bit hard to maintain "equanimity" under such circumstances, esp. since gardening is one thing that I look forward to once a year....

SCG, you are wrong there - even indoor plants don't do well here, as the humidity is so low!!! ROTFLOL! OK, I fibbed a little bit, as my succulents do well indoors, like jade plants... LOL!

Luckily we didn't get any hail damage in NW so I can't really complain. The tomatoes ripen pretty early this year. When the snowstorm hit last year, all my tomatoes are still green.

I agree on the indoor plants. Fruit from our mostly indoor tangerine, from April:

I live in calgary and never got effected by hail much.

I thought you're more south near Okotoks, luckily we have been spared so far, but not out of the woods yet. Hail can get real nasty!

yah but the very south edge of calgary where I live didn't used to be in the city and I can get to okotoks in ten min.

Possible f**** in Airdrie tonight. Gak.

Way too early! Airdrie is pretty high, when I came down south last weekend I checked for altitude, ..about 5 min. before Airdrie it showed 1130m above see level!

Yippee it snowed a bit in my neighbourhood. A lot to the west of Calgary (although that's not really unusual).

you guys can't complain this has been the hottest summer .its been nice since end of feb and will continue right to the end of summer in sept. We have had many days over 30 degrees here .this summer is okanagan like summer. bit of snow than 25 degrees next day is common way high up like we are. Don't worry we have another month of summer the forecast looks great.

But not forest fire smoke..you guy's got the double whammy!

It has been especially dry in the Edmonton region and my garden would have been literal toast if not for all the watering I've needed to do throughout the spring and entire summer. I have not received one deep soaking rain ... though, have kept the water to most everything (other than the lawn) and it's turned out to be a very productive and beautiful growing season. In this region, we've had three excellent warm / hot summers in a row and at my location there has not been any damaging storms during that time ... oh, other than the stupid snow storm last September and hard killing frost that had followed .... though, to be followed by an absolutely amazing autumn!

hugs Ostrich ...I understand hail storms ... when I lived in Brisbane, Australia we had a massive one in the early 80's and it damaged/killed/smithereened so many plants ... it was heartbreaking ... I just got back from visiting my parents (again in Brisbane) they'd had another massive hail storm in November and again ...devastating ... there's nothing to do ... just pick up and go on.....

the only advice I could give to my mother was to pot up babies of some of her more tender/valuable plants/succulents and grow them in a safe place permanently ... for her it was under her balcony ...

Luckily many of your perennials will come back (I hope!!!) because i'm assuming they have to be very cold hardy to survive your winter.

Funny enough I keep telling my husband that I want to move to Calgary (or that area - maybe Lethbridge) ... we've lived near Toronto for 25 years ... so thanks for the warning :) but it's still a beautiful area. :)