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Gary350
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Hail storm beat my garden to death.

The storm actually did me a favor. The corn stalks were standing there drying so I could cut them down but the hale shreaded the leaves and turned them to mulch now they are on the ground and the corn stalk are just a broom handle type pole. The okra leaves were mulched too. Tomatoes, squash, melons, potatoes, everything was all mulched. The tomatoe cages will be easy to stack this year they were all stripped and cleaned. We had 2" of hale in the yard it was 1/2" to 1" diameter hale, it looked like winter with snow on the ground. Hale came down the gutter drain pipe and was piled 18" deep on the ground at each pipe. I was in the garage the hale hitting the 2 metal doors it was so loud I could not hear myself YELL. It was amazing and unexpected but I enjoyed the excitment of it. The kids went out side and threw hale at each other they later got shovels and threw shovels full of hale at each other and even buckets of hale at each other. That was fun for about an hour.

I wish I could order a hale storm every year a day or so before the first frost. LOL
Last edited by Gary350 on Thu Oct 20, 2011 6:47 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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jal_ut
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Joined: Sun Jan 18, 2009 10:20 pm
Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

Oh my, that was some storm. One would hate to see something like that in July! Nature is awesome.

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Richard L.
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Posts: 45
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2011 2:27 pm
Location: San Antonio Texas

Whoa!... I saw that happen to us here in Texas years ago, bad hail storm right out of no-where that stripped the corn leaves off.

gumbo2176
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Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:01 am
Location: New Orleans

Just make sure the cars are in the garage. We had a large hailstorm pass through New Orleans several years ago that damaged both my vehicles, put over 30 holes in my slate roof, totally flattened my thriving vegetable garden and defoliated all the trees.

I'll pass on one a year with that type damage.

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!potatoes!
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Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:13 pm
Location: wnc - zones 6/7 line

had a big one like that this past spring - except that I didn't see any hailstones that were smaller than an inch across - that flattened a lot of seedlings and ripped branches off smaller fruit trees. it was exciting, and an experience to have experienced...but I'll pass on having it be a regular event. it was nice to see (almost) everything bounce back after it - april's nice like that.

DeborahL
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Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2010 11:40 pm
Location: Coastal Southern California

Hail is fun here too, because it's rare. The hailstones are always small bits. I've never seen the big ones !
It seems to me that that were more hailstorms when I was a kid than there are now. At least here.

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stella1751
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Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2009 8:40 am
Location: Wyoming

What a refreshing and unusual take on a hailstorm! I can't recall ever having been grateful for one, but I will confess that they are pretty exciting when they hit. I don't think there's anything quite like it, especially when there is a tin roof within a hundred yards.



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