Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Tropical Gardens and Plants 108, 1 by dyzzypyxxy

dyzzypyxxy wrote:
I know, a tropical storm makes you look at your surroundings in a whole new light, doesn't it! I am now walking around the garden and instead of pulling weeds, I am picking up stuff that would fly around if we get a lot of wind. Lots of the little potted plants are getting plugged into the ground, where they should have been months ago. We're lucky we don't flood here - we're on 'high ground' in Sarasota, a whole 29' above sea level!

As LoveForests says potted plants are potential projectiles that could break windows or make a hole in a roof. I'm lucky to have two garages, the small one just has my car in it so there's room for lots of plant pots, garden tools and stuff. Big stuff goes in the Garage Mahal out back.

We have shutters, food, water and a generator in case we really get hit with a long power outage. Funny story, actually - DH was a doubter "we'll never get a storm here" before Charley hit in 2004. It came in 50 miles south of us and passed 25 miles east, and our friends in Punta Gorda were without power for 2 weeks. The next storm, Frances, was arriving on our anniversary and when he asked me "what do you want to do for our anniversary?" I said "Go to Home Depot and buy shutters and a generator". He again laughed it off until I asked him "How'd you like to be without your computer for 2 weeks?". After that, we got 7 more storms in '04 and '05, all were close calls for us, but he's a believer now. We've put up the shutters a couple more times, but only used the generator once, for 2 days.

I can't imagine what my garden would look like after a really big storm! But I'm trying . . . We'd have a lot of tree damage in this whole area because we really have NOT been hit hard for nearly 50 years.

Kay, your flowers and plants are lovely - I'd been wondering why you hadn't posted pictures for quite a while!