Hail scare and, finally, sprouts!

This past Friday I had quite the scare.  I knew there was a chance of thunderstorms.  Shortly after I got home from work I was out puttering, intending to harden my sprouts off and do some watering.  One look at the sky told me no watering on my part would be needed.  A few minutes later, I got a county emergency alert on my phone with a severe thunderstorm warning... potential for winds in excess of 60 mph and hail the size of ping pong balls.

I LOVE thunderstorms.  Love them.  (If I grew up in tornado alley, I would probably feel differently.)  But at the thought of what hail that size would do to my garden, I panicked and ended up racing around to cover my plants with whatever I could.  Partway through, I snapped this picture.

We did get an intense downpour, but thank goodness, no hail.  Hail was in the area, though -- my husband and two friends all reported hail golf-ball size or bigger on their commutes home.

We are really blessed with the location of our house... the worst of the bad weather almost always passes us by.  In ten years we have had only one really hellish bash of rain which I think was a severe microburst.  I was certain the back side of the house was going to blow in.  Our neighbors ended up replacing siding from that one, but we were screened by the mature trees on that side.  (And given that, I try not to complain too loudly about having no decent growing area on the south side of the house.)

In other news, things are finally coming up!  Nasturtiums, both kinds of pole beans (Christmas pole lima and Cherokee Trail of Tears), cukes, and I am going to take a chance and say I saw a pepper sprout.  The Cherokee beans and the cukes were just up today.  I transplanted my cabbage and basil, even though they only have seed leaves.  I don't have much hope for the cabbage, but I can try again in the fall.

Wish I had a better camera for this Cherokee bean.  It is quite beautiful, half the outer hull and half a delicate ruffle just trying to unfurl.  When I checked it this morning, the hull was barely visible above the soil, and here it is this afternoon, trying to pop up.

Here are the potatoes after their second 5-gallon covering.  I am now certain that I didn't reserve enough backfill for them, but wise folks at SFG have suggested straw, so I'll try that.

Radishes are getting big, as is the rapini.  The lettuce is doing well, too, though no where near ready to start cutting yet.  Can't wait!

Lettuces (and onions):

Left to right:  Carrots & onions in the high rise, radishes, Rapini, and Kohlrabi

My lonely corn plant:

Nasturtium:

Tomato plant direct-seeded into my SFG.  I can't focus in on it closely enough, but it is MUCH sturdier than the ones I started indoors!