WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Garden dangers post-Irene

September 13, 2011

Many of gardens really got decimated from recent flooding. I know people are trying to recover with their homes and businesses, but their landscape needs help, too.

If you have a vegetable garden that had flooding due to the heavy rain and puddles, that's okay. Whatever survived that type of flooding is okay to eat. But if the flooding came from rivers or streams, that's not good at all, because you may have chemicals, pesticides, or raw sewage that got into your garden. You really can't eat anything that's in there, you have to till it all under.

For next year, the raw sewage and bacteria should breakdown, but chemicals and pesticides might still be present so you should do a soil test just to make sure you don't have any residual activity in the soil.

If you have lawns that got flooded and they have silt on them you want to rake off the silt and then aerate the soil. That's really important because when it floods, it pushes all of the oxygen out of the soil. You can use your aeration sandals  that I've talked about before, or you can get an aerator machine. After you're done aerating, you should overseed with a grass seed so you can have it come back thick and lush.

For shrubs and trees it depends on the kind of plant that you have. If you have a tree such as a maple, ash, holly, or dogwood, they can take about a week under water and still be okay. But if you have lilacs, yews and junipers, a couple of days under water, and they'll really suffer.  

So depending on the kind of tree, you might see some damage. Again you want to aerate the soil,  remove some of the silt, cover some exposed roots, and also put some mulch around them so you can get more biological activity going in the soil that will help it recover.

Soil test kits can be purchased from UVM Extension Offices, from some garden stores, and also from the UVM Ag and Environmental Testing Lab, Jeffords Hall, Room 262, 63 Carrigan Drive University of Vermont Burlington, VT 05405-1737 - 802-656-3030 - AgTesting@uvm.edu - http://pss.uvm.edu/ag_testing/?Page.