Hurricane Ian- September 2022

Hurricanes are one of those natural disasters I can safely say I have a healthy respect for. We know they're coming. We can track and more or less plan for when and where it will hit. It's the destruction and absolute mess they leave in their wake that keeps me up in the middle of the night when they're going through...especially now that I have kids. Hurricane Ian was one of the worst hurricanes I've been through since I moved to Florida in February of 2012. We definitely got lucky. Our house is standing and we're safe. The first thing we did after signing closing papers for the house was call in the tree crews specifically for this reason- hurricane season. After everything was said and done we lost a huge chunk of gutter, our yard was a mess with limbs and sticks everywhere, and we had no power or running water for a week. Our saving grace was the cool front Ian brought behind it. We had no AC but the temperature outside wasn't unbearable. With battery powered camping fans we all managed to stay relatively comfortable.

Here is what I learned about starting a homestead where hurricanes frequently hit:

Lesson one- plan garden locations better. Our gutters were not installed properly. We found that out amidst the endless summer rains. I didn't think about that little tid-bit of information when installing my flower beds and planting my garden. I put my gardens where I knew the hose would reach..which is near the house, out of the way of kids and dogs, easily mowed around, and right under the leaking, poorly installed, gutters. They get plenty of sun but they also have no protection from rain or wind.

Lesson two- just because it grows doesn't mean it's going to be happy and thrive. I'm pretty well-versed in gardening in New Jersey. "Surely it can't be that much different gardening in Florida," I smugly said to myself! Nope. I was wrong. It's different. Very different. My plants also surprise me down here in that the plants I think I can't kill..I do. The plants I think I've destroyed..come back. More on that later.

Lesson three- we need a better way to collect rainwater. I moved every plant I could indoors when Hurricane Ian decided to aim right for the Tampa Bay area. When we ended up losing power and water for a week trying to figure out how to water my plants was not on my priority list. My garden was already somewhere between overwatered and burnt from the summer rain and summer heat anyway, but that didn't mean I wasn't bummed to see the bright greens turn a sad brown. I lost a good chunk of my potted plants. I have some ideas on how to keep my plants a little safer the next time. More on that later too. We used the kids' blow-up pool to collect water as a backup in case we ran out of the water we had saved before the storm hit. It's a good thing we did too! We ended up having to use it. Hubby and I are looking into proper rainwater collecting systems to use for watering the garden and to use if we lose power again due to a storm.

My first summer season growing in Central Florida has been a learning experience for sure. One acre living is a journey, and thus far I'm enjoying learning along the way.