Giant storm predicted for tomorrow

Hi--it's my first winter for WS, and I have really enjoyed the opportunity to "do a little dirt" in the coooooold days of winter. As you NE people are ALL very much aware of, there is a nor'easter out there just waiting to hit us tomorrow (Sunday).
MY question is: do I need to do anything special for my precious jugs (about 40% of which have germinated.) I did move them under my potting bench a few minutes ago, just to keep them from blowing away, which will protect them --but I don't want to leave them there for very long, because they need the light. I'm just not sure how much they need to be protected from a lot of rain--which is supposed to continue for a few days. I know that WS seeds don't mind cold, but what about a lot of rain? Can they got moldy if their soil doesn't dry out a bit? And what about the new seedlings?

I just want to wish you luck with the storm. This has been the FEAKIEST April I can ever remember (of course until the last couple of years when I turned into the OCD gardener I am today I probably didn't pay that much attention. LOL!) It is snowing outside for crying out loud. Not little flurries, but SNOWING. There's at least an inch on the ground and it's still coming down hard. I've moved my containers for the last time so I guess what will be will be.

Best of luck,
La

I haven't moved any of my contairners through this very weird "spring". I had thought I would move them into more sun as they are in shade from mid morning on but since that thought we haven't had any sun! I think the point of wintersowing is to let the seeds and plantlets live as if they were out in the open only a little more protected. I have mine all crowded together so they won't blow away and they will just have to tough it out. It has got to warm up a little sometime.....right?

Bonny

Talk about some weird Spring weather! Mother Nature is still playing April Fools jokes on all of us!!

CapeCodGardener: Move your containers to a more protected if possible. If you have enough drainage holes in your containers then they should be fine. You can always add a few more holes if you find that some are not draining properly. The mold shouldn't hurt any of your sprouts. Hopefully, the storm will move through your area quickly and head out to sea.

Is this the reason i've been seeing Blomberg on the news... weather channel i think... i really wasnt paying attention, then i was hearing something about huge storm... but i really wasn't paying attention, as i was focused on my sudoku puzzle.

Fortunately we just got the storm in the form of rain but it was 2.3 inches yesterday. It's cloudy and 35 degrees now. I know my jugs will all be water-logged, and no sunshine in the forecast for several days to help them dry out. It is supposed to be in the 50s in the upcoming week, though, with nights in the 40s. These babies need some sunshine, as I do too.

I still have some tenders I need to sow but I've been waiting because of this freaky cold weather. I plan to put a pot of soup on the stove today (gotta use than bone from my Honey Baked Easter ham) and do some stuff in the house. We're having new carpeting installed on the first floor this Thursday, and I have to work Mon thru Wed, so I have to have the prep pretty much done today. Have to wrap and pack up and move the china, sculptures, etc, and stash everything in the basement and upstairs that's breakable. So I probably won't be sowing anything new until at least next week, hopefully the weather will resemble spring by then.

Karen

Well, it's nice and rainy all right--thank you for the responses to my questions. I've stashed my jugs in a protected spot (under potting bench) and will leave them at least until the wind dies down, forecasted to be sometime late tomorrow. We're supposed to have rain for several more days--I better check the drainage holes as well.

I also put three baby Japanese Maples (in containers) under there too--AND I went out and reinstalled the tree "braces" that I had taken down last week around my two well-loved small JMs that I planted last Fall! We're supposed to have 40 MPH gusts--in fact, I can see the pines starting to move.

Kqcrna, I thank you for the reminder that MY Easter ham bone is also ready to the soup-pot! I hope your carpeting goes well!

A little storm-related anecdote: today was the outdoor ground-breaking ceremony for our church's project to shore up and enlarge the sanctuary of our little colonial church. . . NOT! We held it in the basement, with a bucket of soil and the special shovel.

We've had torrential rain all day with wind gusts of up to 40 m.p.h. Needless to say, I haven't been outside to check on my wintersown containers. I'm sure they'll be fine. However, I walked downstairs a couple of hours ago to find that our sump pump stopped working during this rain storm and we had over 1" of water in our finished basement (with wall to wall carpeting) and in a portion of the unfinished part. We're trying to salvage as much as possible, ran out to buy a wet/dry vacuum and an emergency plumber is on route. Needless to say, it has not been a good day! Hope yours has been better!!

Very similar, except my basement's not finished, and there's still an inch of water with the sump pump working. I'm kind of used to it after last year.

>>our sump pump stopped working

OH Shirely.... so sorry to hear that!! my last house was in a flood zone, so no way could we ever finish the basement (old house, cracks in the foundation, no drain tiles... you get the picture) .... we also had 2 sump pumps... this house we have 3!!

w had moved out by the end of sept `01 and had 4" of rain on 10-13-01 and needless to say, the good pump "smoked" and we had about 8-12" of rain (the floors were not even, so parts had more water than others)
but luckily the house was vacant. The furnace, washer & drier were all up on 18" of concrete... so they were OK.

we hated the helpless feeling we'd get when we knew we were gonna flood, and not much we could do about it.

"batten the hatches"

Thanks claypa & tcs1366. We used the wet/dry vac for hours & hours yesterday. We pumped out over 75 gallons of water easily from the carpet. We ran several fans last night to help with the drying process. I wouldn't be surprised if we have to replace all the carpet. It needed to be replaced regardless of the flood. We finally got a new sump pump. What a mess!! I

Gee, Shirley1md - that is really tough. I am sorry to here of everyone's flooding problems.

Sorry to hear that, Shirley. We've had that happen though our basement is unfinished so it wasn't quite so bad.

Sometimes, too, when we have our summer drought periods some part of the sump pump gets stuck in place, then it won't work until I kick it hard and beat it up, then it jumps back into action.

Karen

Thanks Seandor & kqcrna. Karen-sorry to hear about your past flooding problems in your basement too. Our sump pump was 15yrs old. It was working fine up until this point. I just wish it hadn't quit working in the middle of a Nor'easter! We know have vacuumed over 150 gallons of water out of the carpet. The fans are running continuously. I'm going to call a company to come out to clean & dissinfect the carpet/padding. Keeping my fingers crossed that its going to work. The good news is that the unfinished portion of the basement is drying out nicely.

Shirley: Do you have a dehumidifier? They help a lot. My basement is always too humid. The foundation leaks a small amount with large rains, but things stored down there used to just smell musty. I keep a dehumidifier on down there all the time. It only kicks on when the humidity rises, like sometimes when I do laundry. It helps a lot. I would really help dry things out for you now.

Karen

Sorry to hear about your flooding woes Shirley. I have a lot of problems with my basement as well, but at least it's not finished. Well, to be honest the REASON it's not finished is because of my own flooding issues. I second Karen's recommendation for a dehumidier. It's like spitting in the wind if it floods down there, but it helps keep things nice and dry against normal dampness.

Oh no Shirley, I just read about your flooding.
Anything I can do to help? Just let me know, although I guess I'm a little late, .........still whatever I can do!
Nikki (Casey)

Thanks everyone for your concern. To give you all an update, the carpet cleaning company told us to get in touch with our home owners insurance company immediately, which we have now done. In turn, the insurance company gave us the name of a water restoration company due to the brakish (grey) water that had saturated our wall-to-wall carpeting/padding, baseboards, drywall and cement. The restoration company came out Tuesday and removed all the carpeting & padding, baseboards & damaged portions of drywall. They then applied a disinfectant which has a very medicinal odor. At least its better than smelling the mildew, which quickly formed. Plus, it felt like a jungle because the humidity level was incredibly high. They left big industrial size fans and a dehumidifier that are running 24hrs. a day. They'll be back on Monday to retrieve them. All this has been done before the insurance adjustor has even been out to assess the damage. Don't worry, we've taken LOTS of pictures to document everything. Now we are waiting for the insurance adjustor to show up. We are so thankful for the fact that the flooding could have been a whole lot worse!