Maintaining a garden involves a lot of work, especially if you’re worked hard to grow rare flowers and shrubs. You’ve probably spent hundreds of dollars on seedlings and landscaping features. But like everything else in life, there may come a time when you can do nothing but watch as the garden you’ve worked hard for gets swept away by a flood.
If you’re living in a community that rests on an identified floodplain, there’s always the risk of losing your garden during severe flooding. And even if you’re not located in a floodplain, you have to be prepared for the possibilities of heavy rains or overflowing rivers. While you can call in professionals like ASAPRestoration.net to clean out your basement after a flood, the same can’t be said for your precious plants.
You can’t always save your garden from a flood — the best you can do is to revive it after the waters have receded. Let’s take a look at a few important tips to help you revive your garden after a flood.
1. Start by clearing dead plants and trees
The first thing you will need to do is to get rid of plants and trees that were engulfed by the flood. You will need to clear your garden of anything that might impede new growth. That being said, you will have to collect as much debris as you can. This will make it easier for you to put down new plants once the garden is cleared.
2. Avoid stepping on wet soil
Applying pressure on a garden that’s been oversaturated by floodwater can harm the quality of the soil. Especially if you have plants that weren’t swept away by the water, stepping on the soggy and loose ground can damage the roots of trees and plants. It’s best to wait until the ground dries up before you can proceed to reviving your garden.
3. Hose down your plants
Mud can be disruptive to the growth of your plants during the aftermath of a flood. That being said, you will need to clean your plants with a hose. For delicate flowers, you might want to use a spray bottle and a cotton rag to clear the leaves and stems of mud before it dries.
4. Use organic fertilizers
Reviving your garden after a flood will involve improving the soil condition. The best thing you can do is to add some fertilizer. It’s okay to use commercial fertilizer for your garden only if the floodwaters weren’t acidic, which is rarely the case. Saltwater flooding is a big problem as the increased salinity can affect the growth of your plants. To be safe, you might want to consider organic fertilizer made from compost. This will help offset the chemicals that might have seeped into the soil during flooding.
5. Get help
If you’re pressed for time and resources for reviving your garden after a flood, you might as well consider getting help from the right people. Ask your friends and neighbors for recommendations on landscaping services in your area. Their professional approach can help in bringing back the lushness and vibrancy of your home garden. Or if you have other gardening aficionados in your circle, ask them if they would be willing to lend you a hand to restore your garden oasis.
Nothing can shock a homeowner quite like seeing a flooded garden. But with patience and with the right strategies, it’s possible for anybody to give a garden a new lease on life.
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