I read somewhere that strong winds can be a factor for damaging plants. (Since I can't remember the site I read that, check out this one...it's attractive and informative) I knew this already, but we don't get too many strong winds in CT, so I never really worried about it. Unfortunately, here you see just what the wind can do. I'm not sure if it's enough to kill off our pumpkin plant, but I'll keep an eye on it.  Only one of the plants is really taking off. They're all growing, but this one is the most visible:

You can see the results of the heavy rain-storms over the weekend....left dirt on some of the leaves.