Flood waters now receding - now just dealing with mud

5 comments

Well, the good news is that the ‘waters have parted’ – or at least, back where they are meant to be (ie in the river). What remains is a lovely thick sludgy layer of grey silt mud. Some of our neighbours – who have experienced garden flooding for the first time – are panicking about what to do, but this being our fifteenth year of floods, we’re somewhat more pragmatic:

1) the next round of rain (inevitable!) will clear much of it.
2) what is left can be easily dealt with, either by using a pressure hose, OR scooping up (an old fashioned shovel, the kind you use for coal in fireplaces is ideal for this) and added to the compost heap (the silty mud is too dense to use on the flower beds, especially as much of our soil is naturally heavy clay anyway, but it is rich in minerals, so I like to mix it with woody plant material and corrugated cardboard)

And we try to keep focused on the positive: already, it’s a joy to see ‘life’ returning to the garden: the daylilies (hemerocallis) are already poking emerald-green shoots above the mud, while some crocus are even bravely considering flowering.