By Guest Author Dr. Leonard Perry, Extension Professor, University of Vermont.
Looking over your flooded yard or garden can be quite daunting. But it’s possible to repair and reclaim them by following these suggestions.
Across the country, yearly weather events cause many flooded areas. Hurricanes cause epic flooding and if you’re lucky enough to have a home and yard after flood waters recede, your lawn and garden may be buried under silt. How you deal with a landscape buried under silt depends on its depth.
As with any soil, make sure it is dry before working with it. Soil should form a ball in the hand, then crumble when pressed. If the squeezed ball of soil drips water, it’s still too wet.
Reclaiming your flooded lawn
If a lawn is covered with under an inch of silt from flooding, it may recover. Scratch the surface with a steel hand rake or similar tool. I have a mini-tiller with vertical blades just for penetrating compacted soil (similar to a “vertical mower”). This will allow water and air to penetrate below a crusted surface to the roots. Once the silt is broken up, in smaller areas you can wash the silt from the lawn, or at least thin the depth with a forceful garden hose. If the silt dries and crusts, keep it broken up during the season until the grass gets reestablished.
Do a soil test as soon as possible
As soon as possible in the season, do a soil test to see what nutrients may have washed away or need replacing. Kits are available onine or from your local Extension service office, complete with sampling instructions. Results will tell you what major nutrients are needed, amounts, and if soil acidity (pH) needs correcting.
Lawns that were underwater may need to be re-established
If your lawn is covered with more than one inch of silt, it may not recover and need to be re-established from scratch. Fine leaf fescue and perennial ryegrass have poor tolerance to submergence from flooding, especially if they were under water for 4 days or more. If you have less than three inches of silt, rent an aerator and use it on the damaged area up to 6 times throughout the season. Aerating removes small cores of soil and silt, allowing air and water to get to the roots of the grass. Top dress with sand or compost, which will work into these holes. If the silt is over 3 inches deep, consider having it professionally removed.
If the silt is just too deep or your efforts are in vain, and the lawn isn’t showing signs of growth by late spring, you should probably go over it with a rototiller, incorporating the silt as if adding a layer of topsoil. Take a soil test to see what needs adding before reseeding. If it’s a small lawn or if you want instant results and have the budget, consider adding strips of sod. If this is not possible, keep in mind that the best times for seeding cool season grasses are early spring and late summer when conditions favor them and not the weeds. Stabilize the soil by seeding annual ryegrass at 4 to 6 pounds per 1000 square feet, then till this into the soil in late summer before seeding the permanent grasses.
If you have eroded areas to deal with, refilling and replacing the topsoil is ideal. If this is too expensive, amend any added backfill with organic matter such as peat moss, compost, rotted wood chips or old mulch. If the area isn’t destined to be a lawn, you can add plantings (perennials or shrubs) and mulch, seed with annual rye, or add a cover crop such as clover.
Solarizing your soil
Another option would be to spend this first year rebuilding the soil, removing as much silt as possible. Since the silt likely brought in a load of weed seeds, you’ll need to deal with them. The best way to organically exterminate weed seeds on a large scale is to use clear plastic to “solarize” the soil in May or June as it’s beginning to heat up. Solarizing is basically covering the soil with a mini-greenhouse which heats to a high enough temperature to kill some soil-borne diseases and many weed seeds. After solarizing, the soil can then be tilled, bringing more weed seeds to the surface, and solarized again.
Simple steps to solarize your soil
- rake the soil
- moisten it with a hose if dry (moist soil holds more heat)
- cover soil with a thick sheet of clear plastic, holding the edges down with boards, stones, or buried in a shallow trench
- leave covered for 6 to 8 weeks
Reclaiming flooded trees and shrubs
For trees and shrubs, make sure to scoop or rake away silt deposits from the base of plants and tree trunks. Silt only 6 inches deep around trunks or 3 inches deep over roots can be enough to smother them, resulting in a slow plant decline and perhaps death. Water and air need to reach tree roots, and since many of their feeder roots are near the surface, you’ll need to break up or remove silt as described above for lawns. Don’t rototill under trees as this will damage their surface roots.
Some trees that originated in floodplains, such as river birches and willows, survive such conditions. But others such as pines and oaks may suffer. Many trees are able to withstand up to a week of flooding. Unfortunately, trees may take several years to show flood damage symptoms, and then it is too late to save them. If you have a special tree, consult with an arborist to see if corrective measures are needed.
Reclaiming flooded vegetable gardens and flower gardens
As much silt as possible should be removed from vegetable gardens and used to backfill eroded areas or perhaps make a berm garden for flowers. Make sure to use a forceful hose to wash all such silt away from the root areas under bush fruits such as blueberries and brambles. A general rule is that you should not harvest produce within 120 days (4 months) of flooding, as it may be adulterated from contaminants. This does not apply to crops submerged from “ponding” or standing water such as from rain that did not wash in from elsewhere.
For annual flower beds, remove as much silt as possible, or till it into the soil bed. For perennial flowers, many are tough and can emerge through a few inches of soil. Shallow-rooted perennials such as yarrow and tickseed, or groundcovers such as dead-nettle and sedum, likely won’t survive being buried. If you know where these are, dig them in spring and replant on higher ground or in refurbished soil.
Even though many perennials will emerge through a few inches of silt, it helps to rake over them in early spring, or around them later, to remove some silt and to keep it from crusting. As with lawns and other beds, make sure to test the soil fertility. If your garden has more than a few inches of silt, try to remove as much as possible in early spring before plants start growing. Otherwise they may not emerge, or you’ll destroy them later in the process of silt removal. For deeply covered perennial beds, it may be easiest to dig them up, then till the whole bed and start over (a chance for a new design and new plants).
If you’re working in soil that was flooded last year, or even a couple weeks prior, you can consider the soil safe since sun, soil organisms, and rain all work to destroy harmful bacteria in sediment. Just watch for any debris that may have washed in, or contaminants still lingering such as oil or chemicals. Also watch for signs of the invasive Japanese Knotweed that may have washed in. If you suspect contaminants, contact your local town officials or health department, and follow precautions outlined by your local Department Of Health.
This article originally appeared on Perrys Perennials.