Don't give up preemptively. My garden was flooded earlier this year and a lot of stuff survived. It depends in part on how fast it can drain.

Assuming your plants live through the flood, the water will have washed away nutrients. Be prepared to replenish them.

Thanks. I just went out in my boots & had a closer look. The tomato plants look mostly OK, some broken branches. I think the squash plants are well, squashed. The deer fencing acted like a net and caught all the debris floating through. There's actually a pretty decent current running right over the garden. The force of the water pushed the fencing in and pulled the posts over, and that's right where the squashes were.

Last time this happened was early spring, before I had planted. It took a few days for the water to go down. Right now there's probably 8" of water over the garden.

I'm actually not too worried about nutrients. We have heavy clay soil that seems very nutrient rich. Especially in the spot we picked for the garden, lower spot, near the pond. (Oops!) Now I think it probably floods somewhat regularly, and the silt is very rich. I fertilize very little and everything grows well.

Can you dig drain trenches towards the pond?

My spot is also both low and clay, but it has no lower spot to drain to.

Dear gin_gin:

I'm real sorry for your flooding situation. It's heartbreaking to see all of your hard work go down the drain.

Is it possible to transplant to another location on higher ground? This might be worth a shot. The plants are doomed where they are now with the possibility of repeat flooding. It's still early in the season. Maybe you can quickly prepare a bed on higher ground and see what can be salvaged. Just dig up each plant disturbing the roots as little as possible.

"Can you dig drain trenches towards the pond? "

No. Here's the situation. Our lot is 4 acres. We have a creek going through our property. Back in the 30's someone put in a dam and created a pond. We bought the house a little under 2 years ago.

It's the pond that's overflowing into the yard. The water is flowing across the low spot in the yard, where the veggie garden is, and the down into a wetland area that's also on our property. There is too much water flow to try to pump it anywhere.

Aside from the garden, the real problem is all the erosion that has occurred around the dam from this flood and the one this spring. There is a cute little covered bridge on top of the dam. The concrete dam walls are slowly shifting and taking the bridge with it. Fixing this mess is going to cost a ton of money. I think the only viable option is to remove the dam and let it return to a creek like it naturally would be. I'll be sad to lose the pond though, and our street is named after it!

Dogwood, I don't know about transplanting. The tomatoes are about 3-4 feet tall. There about 25 plants. I really don't have another space I can prepare right now. The water on the lawn has receded some, though there is still water flowing through the garden. We'll see what it looks like tomorrow. I hope there won't be any more floods this year. I am thinking of converting the whole garden to raised beds for next year.

Too bad about the dam, but I'll guess you're right about its probable fate.

Looks like a wait-til-next-year situation, unfortunately. If the forecasters are to be believed, it'll rain from now on forever.

This post was edited by ltilton on Thu, Jun 27, 13 at 13:47

Well it's been 2 days. At least there isn't any water flowing from that side of the pond now. There are a few puddles in the garden, but it's not under water anymore. The soil is still sopping wet muck of course. Yesterday the tomato plants looked happy. Today a few of them are drooping a little. I hope they pull through.

Because this was creek water, I'm a little worried about the safety of the tomatoes, assuming the plants survive. We're all on septic systems here. I guess I'll throw away any fruits that were under water. I was doing some reading, and it seems like those above the water should be OK, especially if cooked instead of eaten raw.

The pic and the short video attached below are from Wednesday. In the pic, none of the water you see is the pond, that's all supposed to be lawn. The pond is off to the left side.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flooded Garden