Hurricane Irene

By the time Hurricane Irene hit Rhode Island, she had been downgraded to a tropical storm. Since the path had shifted, we ended up being on the east side of the eye, which means we got more wind and less rain. To the west side of the eye, you usually get more rain and less wind. We still got a few inches of rain, but it was the wind that did the most damage. While we lost many tomato plants at One Love Farm, most of the other plants made it through fine. Best of all, the greenhouse survived. I very much expected to find blown to bits all over South County.

We also lost power for five days. Trees knocked down power lines all over the state causing three quarters of the state to lose power. We have a well, so we lost water for those five days, too. This was a problem not only for the humans at One Love Farm who like water for drinking and showering and flushing the toilet, but also for the plants who like to be watered regularly. For the established plants like the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, they did fine living off the water from the storm. But, we are also planting lots of fall crops this time of year. For them, they require watering, in some cases every day, to ensure germination and proper growth. Hopefully, they will be able to withstand this short respite from regular watering.