How to rescue your garden after hail

NURSING your garden back to health and beauty after storms can be managed, writes Robyn Willis.

HOME GARDEN garden recovery. Anita Rayner working in Vaucluse House kitchen garden before the recent hail storms

RECENT hail storms in some parts of Sydney took most people by surprise.

One minute, we were enjoying the novelty of a little hail falling, several minutes later and some suburbs were covered in a blanket of ice thick enough to build a snowman with.

And while this unusual event provided a welcome diversion on a quiet Saturday afternoon, it caused significant damage to gardens across the Sydney region.

Gardener at Vaucluse House, Anita Rayner, says the historic property received enough hail that it looked like the lawns were covered in snow.

Anita Rayner in the pleasure gardens at Vaucluse House.

But it was the kitchen garden that sustained the most damage.

“All the large leafed ornamentals in the pleasure garden were shredded,” she says. “The hail was small so it was like putting nails through everything.”

“It would have been worse if it were spring because any new growth would have been destroyed”

The fragile leaves of the banana trees, ornamental gingers and cardamom plants along with the zucchinis and pumpkin leaves were destroyed.

The saving grace for many Sydney garden lovers is that the storm happened in autumn when growth is fairly slow.

Anita Rayner working in Vaucluse House kitchen garden before the recent hail storms

“It would have been worse if it were spring because any new growth would have been destroyed,” says Anita. “Because it has happened in autumn it is purely aesthetic and you can just remove the damaged leaves and stems.”

After damaged parts of the plant have been removed, Anita suggests giving your garden a boost with a little fertiliser to stimulate new growth.

“If it is unsightly, you can either wait for it to put out new leaves or remove it and replace it with a new plant,” she says. “Gardening is about patience and resignation but you get rewarded for that eventually.”

These banana trees at Vaucluse House took a battering during the storms.

Some of the banana trees at Vaucluse House were knocked down in the storms. Anita says some have been removed but others will regenerate.

Anita says there are some plants that fared better in the recent onslaught and could be useful if a similar event occurred.

“The spring onions look fabulous — they are one of the few things in the kitchen garden that came through,” she says. “Thicker leafed plants like the monstera and the philodendrons do not tear easily and cliveas tend to manage all right as well, because people generally plant them in the shade, under other trees.”

In the meantime, Anita says it’s a matter of waiting for the weather to warm up and new growth to appear.

Originally published as How to rescue your garden after hail