'How To' Tips on Preparing Your Garden for Storms

Oh No, It’s Coming Your Way

The Tropical Grower is sharing some of our ‘How To’ Tips on Preparing Your Garden for Storms in the hopes of saving some planties. With the passing of Hurricane Idalia, as forecasted, the ‘I’ named storm missed us this year. Whoosh! My prep for it was minimal. Unlike for Ian or Irma, both hit us, and Our Garden was fully prepped for both storms. As much as it could reasonably be. Lee we just watched.

Now, if you are Growing Tropical, most plants that grow in your area have evolved over time to withstand heavy rains and winds, not to mention the beating sun in many cases. Pictures of Palm trees bending over in the wind representing storms always make me laugh. You can see that same thing on Tuesday pretty much throughout the rainy season. It’s what they do.

Tropicals

I absolutely am NOT saying don’t prep these for the storm if you’re into it, but they aren’t going to be the highest priority. There isn’t going to be a whole lot you can do to them that will make a difference with the type of damage they might get.

Our Amaryllis Bulbs, Crotons, Large-Leaf Philodendrons, Dracaenas, and Bromelias all look almost exactly the same after every storm unless something falls on them. There’s some bruising, scraps, and broken or lost leaves. I definitely had to clear debris, but they all kind of look at me and say, ‘We’re cool. Just gonna grow some new leaves, here.”

Be Realistic

Sadly, mother nature does what she pleases, and we have to accept some risks as growers. If you are in the path of a big storm, it goes people & animals, structures, and everything else including plants. Sorry, but that is just the way it is. You have to accept as a grower, no matter what you do, you are going to lose plants you love. In your brain, it has to say ‘no amount of prep will withstand over 100 mile an hour winds’. Until it does, you are not ready. We lost many of our replants after Hurricane Ian to a dry hot winter and spring. My Aunt, who weathered the South Texas storm, lost her beloved herbs to flooding. Dang. Mentally prepare for it.

Do what you can. Regrow the rest. And yes, I lost My Grandmother’s Aloe years ago. I had even made pots of it for all my brothers. It simply wasn’t meant to be. Forever lost to time, but obviously, not my memory as it was the first example that popped into my head. All plants have a lifespan. You hope it’s long. Regrow the rest. If you’ve seen our Aloe, it’s impressive. It still isn’t My Grandmother’s.

Be Pre-Prepared

You’ll often read here about me battling vegetation during the rainy season. Part of that is, hopefully, already having vegetation cut back and under control for the big storms. That way, it’s one less thing to worry about when it’s rolling in. Best plans, right? Telling yourself it needs to be done and doing it are not the same thing. Big Ole Smiley Face.

Early in the season, I woke up to a big tree branch down in the yard. Just a normal storm rolling through. I’m actually glad it came down. Better then, when I had an easy morning just cutting it, not it and a whole other big pile. You’ll be surprised at how much an hour or 2 can change so much.

Long Branches

Watch for extra long branches, especially singles flapping around in the breeze. Our Bougainvillea is particularly bad about growing long, single, flappy branches that tear stuff up, including itself. Cut them shorter. The main branch will thicken and make 2 or more shoots. The mass of branches is more solid and less likely to break or flap around and injure others or itself. Just make sure the main branch is also thick enough to support it.

Be particularly vigilant about cutting stuff off the house and trim anything hanging over the house or any structures. Branches are going to come down, even big ones. Do you want them in the yard or on your house? Neither right? Trim them.

The soffits, those metal sheets under the roof overhang, are particularly vulnerable to flappy branches. If you have any long branches that can reach, even if you think they are thick and unbendable, they will probably damage those. Cut anything that can reach these back.

Spindly Hard Trunk Trees

Sure, you want tall trees, but you also want thick hard trunk trees, not ones that will bend over and break in storms. The problem is young trees are usually nothing more than sticks with leaves for a number of years. Our trees usually start to get big and really grow when the tap root hits the main aquifer. It’s pretty shallow, here.

You absolutely can cut the stick on most trees and allow it to branch out, but there are some varieties you want to grow big as a single trunk, like Pomegranate or Crepe Myrtle Trees. We don’t do anything for these in storms. The stick trunks are very bendy. They are going to lose all their leaves which promotes new growth, but we’ve never had one break in a storm. If they did, I would just trim them up with a clean cut below the break.

We have had them fall over. Make no mistake, this means they were uprooted. The bendy stick trunks didn’t break, but the roots lost their hold. This is very common when flooding is involved. We just stick them back upright, trying hard not to damage the roots further. They either make it or don’t.

Soft Trunk and Tropical Shrub Trees

I thought it important to include this category because some of the things we, in our Tropical Zone, grow as trees often aren’t meant to be trees and/or their trunks are just softer, like Rubber Trees, Schefflera when the trunk is still green, Heliconia and Australian Umbrella Trees. It’s important to remember when staking these to get a stake long enough to save the heavy top ‘head’ of the plant.

Stakes are generally inserted to stabilize the trunk or main base of the plant. The problem with storms is the whippy nature of the wind gusts. One way, then the other, it’s a 360 degree stress on the top of the plant. If there is nothing keeping it in place. It gets whipped all over the place.

Yes, this happened to the newly planted Australian Umbrella Tree in Idalia. Dang. The continued stress damaged the trunk near the top. It was a stick with a head of leaves hanging off the top like a flail (that’s a medieval weapon, a spike ball attached to a stick by a chain). Make sure your stakes are high enough to stabilize heavy canopies especially on young plants.

Big Old Growth Trees

You would think the major risk with big trees is big branches coming down, and this is a big concern. Trimming up canopies and thinning out large masses of smaller branches will take out some of the weight each big branch has to hold and make it less likely to come down. Don’t forget, these are holding water weight as well in a storm. They get super heavy.

Check for cracks or weak spots in the bark. An extreme lean can also indicate a branch is cracked or holding too much weight. I often use the long branch cutter on a pole to pull around on branches and listen for cracks or watch for weird weight shifts. Don’t stand directly under the branches while performing checks. You don’t want to check it down on your head. Just saying.

The biggest concern with Big Old Trees is the whole tree falling over. You would be surprised at how many of these beauties come down in big storms. Yes, the wind absolutely does it, but the cause is flooding. The roots are completely saturated with water and loose in the ground. It gets hit with a big gust of wind, knocking the top heavy tree over. Not planting in areas that flood and trimming are your best options for these. The less top heavy the better.

The Models Say It’s Coming Your Way

First and foremost, secure your house, cars, and personal property. We’re going assume you already have a plan in place for your family. You’ve waited in line for gas. There are water pallets, cartons, or whatever and food. You have medications and flashlights, chargers and candles. There are matches and lighters. The freezer is full of frozen food, you’ll be defrosting in bulk soon. Most of your water bottles are frozen. Okay, now the yard.

Pick Up

There should be nothing loose to blow around in the storm. You don’t have to be crazy about it. I often move adjacent rocks to hold things down. We take the little statues and wedge them into the little critter fence corners. If it might get picked up in the wind, lay it over, put something heavy on it, stick it under low bushes. You can even bury them. All our single stake lights get pulled up and stuck under the Schefflera bush by the house.

Remember: Solid surface areas get pushed by the wind. Things with holes, wind can pass through, do better. We don’t worry about the short critter fences, but all the tall fencing, chest or higher, pots and trellises are secured.

Wind likes to push itself under things, lift them up and slam them into other things. The less space you have for wind to get under things the better. A great example is an umbrella. Closed, our pool umbrellas didn’t even move in either of the ‘I’ Hurricanes. If they were open, they both would have been shredded, and they would have taken the pool screen with them. Oh My!

My first trip around the yard is to just pick-up and secure loose items. A full circle before I do anything else. Flying debris causes the most damage. Don’t skip it.

Pots

Move them into your lanai, porch, garage, or other sheltered area as the safest option, especially if you have plants you want to save in them. We tend to group ours braced up against bushes or a fence if we aren’t bringing them into the lanai or under the satellite gazebo.

Most medium to large filled pots aren’t going to move in a storm if they are on the ground. Soil is heavy, especially wet. If a single sand bag isn’t going to move in a storm, the same amount of dirt in a pot is going to be the same.

However, they can be blown or knocked off stands, walls, ledges or over even on the ground if they are top heavy. Move them to the ground. Set them on their sides up against something soft if the plant is top heavy. Bring your small and empty pots in or stick them under something like a hedge row where the wind can’t grab them.

Laying Pots Over

Any plant sticking out of a pot is at risk of being whipped to death by the wind. The taller the plant, the bigger the risk. Lay your pots on their sides with the plants on or close to the ground. This will cut down on the wind. Placing the plant part up against something is even better as it cuts down on the whipping even more.

Stick something over your soil before you tip it. I find a circle of cardboard cut just slightly larger so you can wedge it into the pot works best. A slit to the center with a hole for the trunk or plant base is necessary. Bend it open at the slit and slip it around the trunk. Then, you just press the cardboard down into place. You can also use a damp cloth, aluminum foil, or any other material you can crush down and keep in place over the soil.

Laying pots over has the added benefit of keeping them from flooding. Water can’t fill the pots. The risk in this is they aren’t getting any water. Remember to push these back upright as quickly as possible. If you have a dry spell after the storm, hit them with some water.

Palms

A Palm tree will repeatedly bend over in the wind. It’s in their design. 50, 60, 125 mile an hour wind gusts, year after year. Finally, an 80 mile an hour wind takes it out. Maybe it was sustained a half of a second too long, longer than the others. Maybe a bug burrowed a nest into the trunk making a weak spot. It could have just been whipped one way and back the other in a perfect crack. Grown a half inch too tall, or maybe, something slammed into it, like a boat. Those are not exactly in your control. More likely, they get uprooted due to excessive flooding.

My point with Palms is, unless they are small, you aren’t going to be able to do anything more than mother nature and/or the vast and extensive evolution of the species to weather the exact thing you are trying to protect it against. Just saying. They make it or they don’t. Here’s the post on Righting Downed Trees, Palm Trees.

Palm Prep

If it’s a new big plant, it should have the 2 x 4 wood plank stakes in a tripod around the trunk. Those work best if they are in place for at least a year. I leave them in as long as possible. Don’t give up your long term stability for short-term clean looks. Again, just saying. If you’ve removed them and your plant is under 3 years in the ground, you might consider reinstalling them for a big storm.

Small Palms get stakes. We generally stake new plants in general. We like the 48 Inch Steel Plant Stakes and the 58 Inch Steel Plant Stakes. You don’t have to get fancy or expect something to last forever. I’ve also recently been reusing the metal poles from the tent that blew down 2 seasons ago. Or you can purchase bamboo. The bamboo is obviously going to be much less sturdy unless you get something very thick. We’re talking about withstanding heavy winds. Get the stakes as far down into the ground as possible and use fasteners to keep the plant with it. I’m partial to using a mallet.

Ground Plants

You have several options for saving plants from wind and heavy rain. The best is to cover them. Now, keep in mind, big storms usually last a couple of days, and you have to prepare for the storm before you are being hit with bands of it. Securing plants in the pouring rain is not fun.

Whatever you do, it’s going to probably be there for days. You don’t want to prep something that will kill them. You’re trying to save them.

Cover Them

Hard Covers

Cover your plants with buckets, tubs, pots, or other closed hard containers. You want something large enough to not crush the plant. It has to completely cover it. We like pots with a hole that allows in a little sun and water, size allowing.

Remember to dig the container down into the dirt around the plant to make sure no wind can get under it. Then, a rock on top, a stake, or something heavy to secure it. The risks are it can be crushed by something falling on it, or the wind can take the container despite your best efforts. Then, it’s just exposed to the wrath.

Soft Covers

You can also cover them with material, but it’s riskier. I’ve used weed barrier mat and small stakes to cover newly planted Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cabbage. The short stakes go next to the plants, just taller than the plants, all around. The weed barrier mat is layered on top, tented over the plants by the stakes, and yard stapled completely and totally down. If any little bit of the mat gets loose, it will literally beat all your plants to death. Something can also fall on it.

The most important part here is the tent or open area under the material where the plants live. Check, double check, make sure the plants have enough room under there. Then, add some more Yard Stakes. You cannot have too many.

Frost Covers

You can also use the frost covers you stored after last winter’s frost. We reuse ours every year they’re needed. Because it’s only maybe 1 or 2 nights a year, ours last for a while. We have small tree and shrub covers that go completely over plants like bags and are cinched with a string, closed. These are awesome for saving some of the leaves from becoming coleslaw, if they stay in place.

The problem is getting these closed where air can’t get in. If you don’t, they turn into little parachutes, knotted around your plant base. Sustained winds eventually tear the material and it whips your plant and everything around it to death because it’s still tied to the plant. If it doesn’t, the prolonged wet material covering the plants can rot the leaves and/or whole plant. Slow moving storms can have things covered for a week.

Row covers work like the weed barrier mat material. Again, anything you put these on has to be double guaranteed to not rip or be pulled up by the wind. It needs to be removed immediately when the all clear goes out, and you have to be extra careful not to set them directly on the leaves or plant. Never wonder if it needs more Yard Stakes, just add more. It’s risky, in my opinion.

Tie it Up

Instead of using very whippy material to cover it, try utilizing just the ties. Simple twine can bind all the long whippy branches into a single mass. It’s still going to whip around as a mass, but it isn’t going to whip into itself or it’s neighbors as an airplane propeller. Also, make sure you check the neighbors. If it can reach it bent completely over, it will in a storm. Taking the end of the tie and pulling all the branches to the ground and staking the sting can help keep the entire mass from whipping around.

It doesn’t have to be a traditional tie. Twine, string, wire can all work. The problem is whatever you use is probably going to damage your plant. You have to ask yourself what is going to cause the least amount of damage. The tie or the wind.

The traditional round tomato stands work really well in confining small trees and shrubs with lots of long branches like our Pomegranate tree when it was young. The binding isn’t as tight as a tie, but the stands just slip over the top and can be inserted directly into the ground. The open wire keeps the wind from catching it easily.

Trellises

If at all possible, lay trellises over on their sides. Obviously, you aren’t going to be able to do that with one attached to the house or permanently cemented into the ground, but you would be surprised at how easy the smaller fencing and trellises are to lay down.

I cannot stress this enough, Be Careful. Vines are attached to both the ground and trellis. You need both to stay attached. Take out your stakes or however it is attached to the ground, first, before you do anything else. Then, move the trellis. You can either lay it plant side down or up. The risk with laying plants on the ground, they may only live there briefly. If you crush them, it will only be very brief.

Upright, the vines are completely exposed to the elements. Wind, rain, yeah. The plant between the ground and trellis works best, so down, but you risk the whole trellis being lifted, because now there’s surface area where wind can get under. Try setting small loose starter pots on the ground and laying the trellis, plant side down on the pots. Then, set rocks or other heavy materials on top. You can also add yard stakes at the edges if you move the pots towards the middle.

Odd Shaped Trellises

For odd shaped trellises, use yard stakes to secure them to the ground and/or rocks. We place our cylinders against the critter fence and place rocks inside. If there aren’t any plants, I also throw loose items inside to keep them from blowing around the yard. Double duty.

Flooding

Unfortunately, there is little you can do about flooding for storm prep with the exception of moving your plants. I lost all my Tomatillo plants in the Traditional Vegetable & Herb garden after Hurricane Ian due to flooding. I even pulled the small plants out of the ground with the surrounding dirt, wrung out the water and placed them in a pot to dry out. No luck. They died. The only way to address flooding is to improve drainage.

Pull your plants up off the ground into Raised Beds or Containers at planting. If these are filling with water, you need more drainage holes. Although even the best drainage is no match for a big storm. If you walk outside after the storm and all your pots are filled with water, tip them, and drain the water out. Use a trowel, shovel, your hand, whatever to hold in the dirt. Punch some drainage holes in the Raised Beds. Most areas need a minute to drain, not just the beds, but the soil underneath.

I know, it’s little consultation watching them slowly die. Sadly, the damage is already done. They either make it or don’t. If your dying plant is a perennial, it could come back if there are still seeds in the bed. Try adding some fertilizer and mixing up the top inch of soil. Let it sit for a couple to three weeks. Watch for sprouts. You should know by then if it’s immediately coming back, depending on the time of year.