Flooded...again!

[Matt.]

Well I really can't believe it this time.

Went to my plot on Thurdays evening to discover the whole site (~100 plots) under 8" to 12" of water. I've since been down on Friday and Saturday and the water level hadn't dropped so thats it again for another year.

Its gutting it really is. All that effort and wasted potential again. Hundreds of seed potatoes, onions, sweetcorn, brassicas all rotten and turned to mush. I suppose the only good news is its happened early enough to still have chance with peas, beans and squash (as long as it doesn't rain again ).

The irritatating thing is that the volume of rain was so small. On Tuesday we had one spell of very heavy rain for 12 hours and thats it. No regular flooding and the streams and rivers whilst high are nothing particularly exceptional. The brook next to my plot didn't breach its banks the water just flooded across from the field above. Its clearly mis management by the town council and environment agency not clearing ditches and drainage upstream for whatever reason. The association is trying to get togther and force some action to be taken this time but I'm not exepcting much success.

Sunny weather in the next few days should help speed up the drying process. I have pictures but yet to add to my blog. I'll carry on but no where near the same commitment as before. I've had a plot for 15 months and after two summer floods my sum total produce so far amounts to a handful of radishes, five courgettes, eight spuds and a small crop of beetroot! I've got to laugh its so ridiculous!! Not to mention that I spent a couple of hours on Wednesday mowing grass, applying slug pellets after it had dried from the Tuesday rain!

Oh well rant over. I hope nobody else suffered the same?

[Hans Mum]

dont know what to say other than keep your chin up and as you say try again....

[mcsee]

Very disheartening for you Matt, lets hope something can be done to rectify the problem so it never happens again. I do hope you can manage to grow something when it all dries out.

[HeyWayne]

Dude, that's a real chitter! Sorry to hear the bad news chap.

Are there any other allotments nearby that are less susceptible to flooding? It sounds like the water table is pretty high where you are if it flooded that quickly with such a small amount of rain.

[Flummery]

It sounds like totsl mis-management on someone's part. The difficulty is always finding our who. This land is clearly not fit for allotments in its current state. Of course, it's not fit for anything else either. I'll bet if there were proposals to build houses they'd jolly soon get some drainage ditches in place. I hope your allotment committee can get some action on this one Matt. I can understand how your commitment would wane after 2 seasons like this.

[good7saint]

Sorry to hear that.
Hope something can be sorted for you

[goldmother]

You have my sympathy entirely. Our garden was flooded 5 times last year. We're in the Trent valley basin, and have hilly fields behind us that are pure clay. The rain runs off them and with the drainage ditch being overgrown it washes towards us in a great wave (literally, I watched the waters rise across the garden from no flood, to 6" of water in the space of 10 minutes) We had water under the floorboards, but fortunately not above them
We've been OK so far this year, apparently the farmer has cleared the drainage ditch. This took a lot of persuasion and being passed from council to Environment Agency and back again just to work out who was responsible

The garden recovered fine, even plants that were virtually submerged. Although I think we had a bit less water than you, and because of the risk to homes (and presumable costly bills...) it was pumped out so didn't stay submerged for more than 24 hrs.
All I can say is to keep at it, keep your chin up and good luck!



The bridge by the way is supposed to be ornamental

[Alice]

What a shame Matt. I'm so sorry for you. It does sound like very bad management. I'd keep at them and look around for another plot. Hope you manage to salvage something.

[snohare]

What a sickener Matt !
Ever thought of a solicitors letter threatening a suit for damages unless specific actions are taken ? Dirt cheap at the price, if you share the cost between you all it would be pennies. Sod negotiations, local and central government exist to "negotiate" - only money will actually "decide" for them ! Veggies are expensive nowadays. I reckon it as every plant is worth 50p or £1 to me; this is an argument that would definitely stand up in court. I suppose you could also make the argument that the time and effort you spend is also worth money (minimum wage £5 + per hour - how much would you be earning if doing overtime ?), and of course you are paying for an allotment with a reasonable expectation that you will have the use of it. Given 100 plots, that is megabucks of a claim. Whoever is responsible for clearing out the ditches or whatever upstream of you, given a not too gentle nudge they may well decide that it is easier to just get a work gang in for a few hours rather than face the hassle and potentially ruinous cost of squaring up in court. Basically, the council will do whatever is easiest, so if there is any chance that they are to blame, they may well decide that a JCB will get you off their backs. Private tenants/landowners may be thrawn - try speaking to them in person first if you can, it's amazing how well they can respond to a bit of buttering up sometimes ! Government agencies... good luck.

[Norm]

Sorry to be a doomsayer folks, but this kind of thing will become common in the coming years. There is a school of thought which suggests that global warming is a natural and regular occurence. In Roman times, they grew figs, olives and grapes near Hadrians Wall and the bulk of Roman transportation was by water, not road. The water table was several feet (about 8) higher than it is now.
Councils are reluctant to big out ditches as it may "Damage the delicate ecosystem". So rather than 10 men with shovels and a JCB for £10,000, they have to spend £5.9m building raised wall culverts, thanks to "Friends of the Earth". So when you go to the Council for help and they tell you they can't afford it, you'll know why!

[Matt.]

Hi All thanks for the messages and advice. I drove past the site yesterday evening and its looking a lot drier now. I'll go for a proper inspection tonight.

Snohare - Interesting email with some great points but I'm not after compensation. The financial aspect doesn't particularly concern me as I haven't spent that much (£40?). Also I see it as a hobby so the time I put in is my free choice. The council is obviously strapped for cash as is so a compensation claim would only take money from other needs the town has. I don't know if thats a naive way of thinking but its the way I see it.

Also the situation is a tricky one. Last year we had really bad floods and many people in Abingdon had their houses flooded. Luckily it wasn't me (I made sure before I bought) but for those affected it must be terrible and I know some are still not back home. Even when the damage is repaired the value and saleability of your house must plummet. I see lots of for sale signs in the local streets where flooding occurred so its clearly so bad people want out. The allotments are upstream of the town and on a flood plain. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the council has taken the "off record" decision to sacrifice the fields and allotments upstream to save the town downstream. Its a bit underhand if they have but deep down I think its a good long term solution if flooding is to become a more frequent thing. The land has always had a no-build order on it because of the flooding aspect so maybe the allotments are deemed at risk anyway. The fields upstream of allotments are apparently owned by a foreign investor and they have no interest (maybe even knowledge of floods) to warrant pushing for action.

If the site is sacrificed there should be lots of opportunity for the council to find a new site. Abingdon is surrounded by fields and there is no shortage of suitable land. Originally the site I’m at was huge (300 plots maybe more?) with a second field. As interest dropped from the 50’s onwards everyone consolidated to the one field. Unfortunately this is the one that floods and the other does not….doh! I think the easiest solution would be to open the second field for those who want it. It obviously means starting again from scratch but that’s ok. There are two other sites in town but these are smaller and were full when I applied last year. Also I like the people on this site and I’d like to help them get a resolution. I’ve added my 2p to the argument the allotment committee will put to the council so now it’s a wait and see how things go. I replanted sweetcorn, peas, beans and calabrese last night so I’ll be ready to replant when I’ve cleared the debris.

I’m starting to hope the flooding is akin to tantric sex – you build up time and time again never quite reaching climax but when eventually you do its way better than it would have been first time round.

[nkp1962]

Sorry to hear that - I don't think I would have been able to start again after one flood, so well done for perservering with it.

For what it's worth I would suggest get the local paper(s) involved - to others it may 'only' be an allotment, but imagine the outcry if it was a local (childrens) park??

[Mikey]

Just a thought for future here Matt, have you considered creating tall raised bed, in the order of 18inches to 2 feet off the ground. taking out the top 6 inches of soil, and replacing with gravel, top soil back in and dress with compost or muck as you can source.

This is never going to be achieved overnight, but lining the sides of the beds with plastic should stop them becoming waterlogged in future, and you losing all your efforts.

My thoughts with you, it must be very disheartening.

[Matt.]

Just a thought for future here Matt, have you considered creating tall raised bed, in the order of 18inches to 2 feet off the ground.

I have considered this but last year it flooded three feet deep! How high would I go?! Its an effort versus risk thing and for me its not worth the trade off. Now I've made the plot bed-based I should suffer a lot less with weeds and I can replant later this year and next relatively quickly. It going to be a least effort or minimum loss approach.

[HeyWayne]

Didn't Monty visit some floating gardens in Mexico?