Perspective

For some reason, I knew starting this growing season wouldn't be easy.

In the 2 week period of waiting for little green signs of life, disaster struck.  A natural disaster. We were in the direct path of a line of violent storms that passed through the South, killing people and damaging millions of dollars' worth of property.  I had hoped we would only catch the edge of the storm, or that the North Carolina mountains would slow or break up the system, but no such thing happened.

At our house, the storm approached slowly and dramatically, with a build-up of winds and dark clouds.  Once the most violent part of the storm arrived, it passed through quickly.  Sheets of rain and hail, carried by the extreme winds, slammed into our house, and I noticed our drainage ditch next to the road completely filled with water just after the storm had started.  A large tree came down in our neighbors' yard, and the arbor supporting my wisteria began to tilt significantly.  At one point during the storm, we became worried about the level of hail and the wind strength and retreated our walk-in closet.  We lost power and it remained off for nearly 6 hours.

My two raised vegetable garden beds lay behind our storage shed, which faces west, so I hoped they would have some protection... but even if they did, it wasn't enough.  They both filled with water, and the additional spurts of rain we received after the storm ensured that they stayed filled with water for the remainder of the day. The rows containing cucumber seeds had small mounds of dirt peeking through -- so there may be some hope for those seedlings! I believe the rest was washed away or drowned.  I had just seen small shoots coming up the day before, so whatever was growing was likely too fragile to survive.

Although I'm disappointed that my germinating seeds may have drowned, I will replant.  This storm was devastating to others in our community -- several people have damaged or completely leveled homes, and dozens of people in the South, including several in NC, have been killed.  I am extraordinarily grateful that we made it through the storm safely, and our home had no damage.  We have many blessings, including the opportunity to try again.