Hail looks like death for about ten days
We get the call after a Front Range hail cell: the bed is shredded, the hostas are lace, the rudbeckia is pulp. The instinct is to rebuild. A lot of those crowns are still alive. Hail bruises. It does not always kill the root.
Weston Landscape & Design tags keepers before anyone orders a dumpster. Garden maintenance after hail is a watch, a cut of ruined foliage, and a date to decide, not a same-week teardown.
Wait for the push, then decide
Perennials in Denver and Littleton often push new leaves from the crown if we give them water and time. Annuals in the same bed may be done. Those are two lists. Mixing them into one "redo the bed" quote is how you pay for plants that would have come back.
Photograph the bed the day after the storm and again at two weeks. We want both. If the crown is mush and the stem slides out of the soil, that plant is gone. If the crown is firm and we see new shoots, it stays. Tree and plant healthcare on woody shrubs is the same idea: torn leaves are ugly. A split trunk is a different file.
Do not bury shredded crowns in fresh mulch while we wait. That holds rot. A light clean-up through landscape maintenance is enough.
Irrigation after hail can finish what the ice started
A controller that still soaks a shredded bed every night keeps wounded tissue wet. Move irrigation to a short morning cycle or hand water. Extra fertilizer on shredded leaves will not grow them back faster. It can burn what is left.
Reflected heat from a west stucco wall in Highlands Ranch cooks a hail-thinned bed. Shade cloth is rarely the answer. A temporary skip of the hottest hours is.
If you already wanted a new design, hail is not a reason to skip the keeper list. Landscape design still starts with what survived. A full rebuild is a choice, not a medical fact.
Write keepers, goners, and the two-week check
Before we replant, we want the storm date, the photos, and which plants you already decided to lose. Call (303) 944-7495 or contact us. Related notes sit on the blog. We would rather replant gaps in September than throw away a bed that was going to flush.