Remember the huge hailstorm 3 summers ago? That hail came down pretty much straight with such density and force that it muddied portions of the house 12' about the ground. There was no such forensics this time around; leaves were tattooed to whatever vertical planes and panes around. I do admit to liking the polka dotting on the fence though. The aftermath was gut-wrenching. It's really tough to see your hardwork, tender loving care and vigilance viciously shredded in a maelstrom of hail. Perhaps most shocking was how neatly every single of my plants save for tomatoes was cut exactly 8" off the ground. Lettuce was cut slightly lower despite being shielded by a vegetated fence (my succulent collection). Carrots had their tops completely removed. This was a microburst? Maybe at your place, but not at mine. Tomato stalks would have been completely shredded had I not staked them.
Now the garden looks much better. It's amazing what 30 days of sun and heat can do for a garden. Here's what I learned. It's okay to let Nature deadhead your flowers. I wouldn't do it as severely as Nature did, but next year I'm going to try deadheading seeing that Nature got the intended results: more flowers. This applied to perennials only. My annuals have not made any kind of comeback at all. It's been great seeing Echinacea sp, Linum lewisii, Sedums sp, Sempervivums and others come back and flower. Whew!
Carrot tops will grow back and their flavor will not have changed. Mine haven't anyways and I'm very happy that they've grown back because I have a bunch of them. Don't prune the tomatoes. Ever. They will not set fruit very well, if at all. The fruit I have right now was set about a week before the storm and they were sheltered from most, but not all, of the fury.
