A Season of Rains and Flood

  • Post published:09/03/2021
  • Post comments:4 Comments
Rain and flood

Hurricane Ida took her time getting to Greenfield but on September 2, 2021, we woke up to flood.  Now I can’t fully blame the flood on Ida. When we bought our house six years ago we knew that there was occasional water in the back yard. Our strategy was to create a stroll garden by bringing in yards and yards of good soil (we love Martin’s Farm Compost) to build raised beds.

Deep water!

This is the deepest water, which certainly indicates the clay soil which makes for very slow drainage. Actually, we learned that the houses on our street are built on the edge of the Pray Brickworks.

Water and more water

Did you know that daylilies like water? In our plans to manage heavy rains when they came we decided to make a Hugel which you see on the left. We had a crew come in and build that handsome stone wall, good for sitting on, and for holding back lots of logs and and more good soil.

A different view

This view is taken when Henry stood in front of  the shed.

A hint of rain depth

It’s a good thing Henry has good boots.

Though we knew the yard became very wet, we did not expect quite so much water.  Fortunately, preparing for a wet garden we chose many water-loving plants: river birch trees, willow, red twig dogwood, yellow twig dogwood, winterberry (gold and red), buttonbush, summersweet, viburnam, turtlehead, and cardinal flower. Obviously many other plants thrive in  the raised beds, but I have named those plants that really like water. The buttonbush often lives right on  the edge of rivers and does very well.

We have gotten used to the necessity for keeping the raised beds high, and fortunately we have Martin’s Farm at our beck and call.  It may be that we will have to get used to different weather and  climate change increases. We will prepare to make necessary changes in the garden.

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Lisa at Greenbow

    Goodness, that is a lot of water in your garden this time. It is a good that you and Henry are capable of gardening in this type of situation. Well done.

  2. Beth@PlantPostings

    Oh my goodness! That is high water! I’m so glad you were, for the most part, prepared. I hope it’s draining away now. What a crazy weather system!

  3. Pat

    Lisa – Thank you! We are quite proud of our Water Garden. I’ll be able to do some weeding tomorrow because it is drying sufficiently.

  4. Pat

    Beth – Yes, we learned early how to be prepared for rain. And we do have the wonderful Martin’s compost farm to allow us to keep adding good soil.

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