As I write this, much of the Eastern United States has just experienced the effects of Hurricane Debby. For gardeners, heavy summer storms like these highlight the importance of being prepared both beforehand and ready for quick and decisive post-storm garden recovery. It’s easy to understand why in-ground gardens are at most risk of damage during high winds and torrential rains. Yet container gardens also have their own unique challenges when facing extreme weather like hurricanes, tropical storms, or severe summer storms. Once a severe storm has rolled through your garden, quick action in your garden can revive your precious plants, in-ground or otherwise.
Assess the Damage
It’s critical to evaluate your plants within 24 hours after the majority of the severe weather has passed. Plants have extremely efficient abilities to heal themselves after injury. This means that you need to act quickly after a storm to ensure the plant is making the most of its resources in the wake of severe weather.
Check your garden for:
- Debris & broken containers
- Fallen produce
- Broken stems
- Waterlogged soil
Know what you’re going to have to deal with before you start so you know what to tackle first.
As you go, be careful where you step! The ground will be saturated with water after a rain. So if you have to step on bare earth while making your post-storm assessment, be careful not to step on soil around your plants. Waterlogged soil is already a danger of suffocating your plants’ roots of oxygen. You don’t want to compound the issue by compacting the soil too.
Take pictures as you go. If the storm was particularly bad, it may have caused possible structural damage to your house in addition to your garden. You’ll need photos for your landlord and/or insurance company. Keep an eye out for shingles blown from the roof as well as any damage to the gutters, siding, and foundation.
Immediate Care for Your Garden After a Storm
After you’ve assessed the damage, taken photos, and know what your garden needs in terms of post-storm care, it’s time to get to work. The above list is my go-to order for handling my garden, house, and yard after a particularly bad storm.
Remove Any Debris First
(It narrowly missed our garden.)
Clearing the debris that you can is always first (and can sometimes be done during damage assessment). It’s easier to see what’s out of place after a storm and what in your garden needs care after you’ve removed what obviously doesn’t belong. You may want to wear gloves if the damage is particularly severe to avoid cutting your hands on debris or broken plant pots or branches. If there’s a tendency for poison ivy or poison oak in your area, gloves are always a good idea.
Debris doesn’t just refer to anything that shouldn’t be in your garden, like branches or other wreckage. It also refers to any leaves that your plants have dropped in the heavy winds and rains. Fallen leaves on soil can be a source of mildew, mold, and fungus anytime, but certainly in the humid aftermath of a storm. Removing them can prevent your plants from contracting future diseases.
In the case of a really awful storm, you may not be able to remove the debris yourself. Always take care and get a professional to assist with anything involving powerlines or otherwise structural.
Collect Any Fallen Produce
High winds or heavy rains may cause produce to fall off the vine. Check the ground around your plants to avoid the local wildlife from making off with your hard-earned produce. The fruit or vegetables you find may not be ripe, but in a lot of cases (especially with tomatoes) the produce will ripen indoors. [Learn more about green tomatoes and how to ripen them indoors.]
Caring for Broken Stems in the Garden After a Storm
During a storm, plants in your garden may have broken stems due to wind gusts or falling debris (branches from nearby trees or improperly anchored trellises, for example). In cases of broken stems, determine the extent of the damage.
Has a branch snapped completely (or nearly completely) off? It’s often best to literally cut your losses. Snip the broken branch away with a pair of sharp shears. However, if the branch is partially attached, you have to decide whether you want to try to help the plant to heal, or prune it anyway.
Depending on the plant, cutting away a branch or stem isn’t always a loss. You may be able to propagate a whole new plant by just placing it in a vase of water. Or the plant may send up brand new runners from healthy roots. After all, what’s better than one plant? More than one plant, of course! [To learn more about propagating plants in water, check out this article.]
If you decide the damage isn’t severe enough to warrant pruning, you may be able to encourage the plant to heal. For more on that, check out the Post-Storm Long-Term Recovery section below.
Waterlogged Plants
After heavy rainfall, the soil is going to be particularly damp. You’re going to have some containers with completely waterlogged soil. If your pots have plates beneath them, they’ll be filled with water. Dump out the water in the plates so the water that’s saturating the soil has somewhere to go. You’ll probably have to take care to dump water out of these garden trays several times in the days following a heavy rain storm.
Post-Storm Long-Term Recovery
Once you’ve taken the immediate steps to mitigate problems your garden may have after a storm, your plants still have a long way to go to fully recover. Damaged plants will never truly be the same after injury. It’s the reason trees hold onto the memory of what happened to them in their tree rings. But there are steps we can take to support our plants as they learn to adapt to their new post-storm circumstances.
Repairing Broken Plant Stems or Branches
If you decide to try to encourage your plant to heal a broken stem or branch, first of all don’t hesitate! If you wait too long after storm damage, the plant will make the decision for you. Plants may cull the broken branch(es) by ceasing to send nutrients. Or it may keep the branch but harden off the exposed vascular system to prevent infection to the whole plant. At which point, it will be harder, or even impossible, to stitch the plant back together.
To repair broken stems or plant branches, a breathable, garden tape is your best bet. Garden tape allows the plant to breathe through it, but is sturdy enough to hold pieces of a stem together. It acts like a cast, giving the plant the support it needs around the break to heal itself.
Long term, you’ll also need to adequately support the plant’s weight along and above the break. Secure the foliage above the break to a trellis or cage with string or ties so the break itself doesn’t bend. You can also stake your plant upright to provide the necessary support.
Aerate Your Soil
Taking care to immediately drain any garden trays under potted plants is step one after any storm. But that alone won’t save your plants from possible root rot. In this, container gardens and gardening in-ground share the same problem. So how can you help your soil dry out faster? One word: Aeration.
Aeration is a pretty easy way to care for waterlogging in small in-ground or container gardens after a storm. Poke holes in the surface of the soil with a small stick or garden rake. Essentially, you want to manually make more holes in the surface for air to get into the soil. This increases the surface area the waterlogged soil has with the surrounding air, helping it to dry out faster.
Fertilizing Your Garden After it Rains: Yes or No?
Following a heavy rain, it’s a good idea to assess your garden and perhaps even perform a soil test. Plant nurseries and garden centers often have inexpensive soil tests that you can use at home to know for a fact exactly what your soil needs.
It’s hard to decide whether you should fertilize your garden after a rain. There are some good reasons for and against. [Know how to read fertilizer labels, so you know what you’re adding to your soil.]
Rainwater is Full of Nitrogen
On one hand, rainwater is an excellent fertilizer all on its own since it often carries nitrogen from the upper atmosphere. If your latest storm had lightning involved, that’s even better news for your garden. Lightning is a nitrogen-to-soil fixer. Plants need nitrogen to produce chlorophyll, their main method of gathering nutrients from sunlight.
Rainwater Rinses Soil of Nutrients
On the other hand, a deluge of rain water can wash the soil clean of nutrients like phosphorous, potassium, and calcium. These are essential macronutrients that plants require to produce cell walls, green leaves, and repair damage. After a storm, it’s important that your garden soil has what your plants need to repair any damage they’ve sustained.
Hurricanes & Tropical Storms Are Not Just for the Coasts Anymore
The Category 1 hurricane Debby was the 2nd hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. While not a major hurricane (Cat. 3 or higher), the stormfront caused at least five states to declare states of emergency due to the intense rainfall and widespread flooding. Winds in excess of 50 mph, heavy rainfall, and flooding are typical of a slow-moving storm like Debby, while greater magnitude storms also bring further increased risks of high winds and damage.
It’s easy to see why our readers on the coasts may be interested in caring for their garden after a storm. But inland areas aren’t immune to changing weather patterns and increasingly frequent extreme weather. In May 2018 Subtropical Storm Alberto traveled from Mexico through the central United States before finally dissipating in western Ontario, Canada. Even my own little garden in central Indiana (where I was living at the time) was affected.
Staying up-to-date on weather patterns and storm surges is a good idea for any gardener, in-ground and container alike. As the oceans of our planet warm, storm surges like Hurricane Debby or worse are only going to get more frequent. Last year (2023) alone, there were 21 tropical cyclones, 20 of which were named, making it the fourth-most active storm season on record.
Your Container Garden’s Road to Recovery After the Storm
After the storm has passed, your outdoor garden might look a little worse for wear. But don’t worry! With the right care, it can bounce back stronger than ever. By assessing the damage, providing immediate care, and making a few long-term adjustments, you’ll be well on your way to nurturing your garden back to health. Remember, nature is resilient.
Stay proactive, stay positive, and soon enough, your garden will be vibrant and thriving once more.
Related Reading
I mentioned container gardening a lot in this article. New to container gardening? [Learn the basics with our beginner guide to container gardening!]
