Water logging - can plants survive it?

[HeatherL]

We awoke this morning to find the top of our garden covered in water

At the very back of the garden is a edible hedgerow (around 100 plants) we planted last January. It didn't do much last year but this year has really started to take off. The base of them that we mulched with layers of manure, cardboard and some used growbag compost resembled a river. There is a bed containing raspberries and gooseberries, and others containing seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago and garlic I planted last autumn. All were under up to two inches of water. My other half dug some ditches to divert the water away and the beds and hedgerows are now almost drained. Will this water logging spell the end of all our plants?

Our chicken run is also at the top of the garden (the only place it can go), we had to put pallets and bits of wood down and also built them a new shelter, but they are still scratching in the mud!

[Capsid]

It depends on the plant and how long the waterlogging lasts. The roots need oxygen unless they are pond or bog plants which can derive oxygen from the water. So they will eventually die but I'm not sure after what period.

[rustylady]

As they were only submerged for a few hours the plants should survive. Not sure about the seeds though.

[di]

My chicken run was awful this morning, no puddles, just thick squelchy mud

I find that straw helps, although you need to be on the ball clearing it out, otherwise it just get trampled into the muck.

I seem to remember someone on here using pallets in their particularly wet run, not sure how easy they'd be to keep clean though.

[hamamelis]

Most plants seem to cope for a few days at least- my parents' place floods pretty much on a yearly basis- in fact, I remember it being under a foot or so of water for over a week once, (my mum even got the canoe out) and I don't recall them losing many plants from it, if any.

For a few hours, I really wouldn't worry about anything 'drowning'; the seeds/seedlings might have been damaged or lost through the sheer power of the water flow though.

[Florence Fennel]

Oh dear! I hope they do survive for you Heather.

[HeatherL]

Thanks everyone, I don't mind loosing the seedlings but would be sad to loose the hedgerow and soft fruit.

I will just have to wait and see what they all do.

[Bren In Pots]

Fingers crossed for you Heather.

[Currysniffa]

I've been up to the lottie to find part of my potato patch has flooded yet again, my first early's are in there not sure there going to be alright

[BarleySugar]

My fig tree is sitting in a puddle . It got all through the winter without any trouble, I went to the plot today and the water is just sitting there. It is at the edge of the patio area, which when you tread on the paving the water bubbles up. I raked an area smooth further up the plot, it didn't look too bad, but the water was glistening on the fine crumb. Obviously I didn't walk on any soil. The weather was lovely up there, we didn't want to go home, but aside from pulling a few weeds (which came up very easily ) it was of course too wet to do anything.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Depends to a great extent on the soil structure. If it is fairly free draining, the hedge will come to no harm. On the other hand, if the hedge has its feet in sludge for more than a few days you could have problems.

[Zenithtb]

My garden is essentially one huge raised bed (we're on a mountain/slope, so one side is a 10' wall). As such it floods all the time (had to block drainage holes in wall else when it rained, all my soil flooded out).

This year it's happened several times. One row of my potatoes kicked the bucket, but everything else came through fine.

If it's not flooded for AGES, I think anything root-based will be fine...

Let us know if things are alive in a week! :-)