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Once flood damage sets in your garden, you need to gear up to bring your home and garden back to normalcy as soon as possible. Keep in mind that more delays doing this mean more work to be done after. Floods can cause severe havoc to your garden and home and this can be more frustrating for those who have a keen eye for natural surroundings and end up spending a large chunk of their times on nurturing their home garden with lots of care and devotion. At some point, however, you will have to deal with repairing the flood damage to your garden. Do not postpone this unduly as timing is critical in any flood damage restoration, and delaying it can constitute a health risk to you and your family, especially to younger children. Most water in flooding rivers, lakes, streams, seawater and oceans contains at least some human or animal waste (and therefore pathogenic contaminants). Time and heat can actually transform this slightly contaminated Gray Water into heavily contaminated Black Water. The longer floodwater remains in your garden, the more of a health risk it becomes - especially when temperatures are warm. Flood water brings with it a lot of impurities including germs and bacteria that can be detrimental to the growth and development of fruits and vegetables grown in your home garden. So, the most important thing to be kept in mind is to always boil your fruits and vegetables before consuming them to make them safe for eating. Garden Restoration for Overall Safety Clear the ground of all potentially dangerous objects, including broken tree branches, debris etc. Rent a shop vac to remove all debris from your yard if you need to. Wash plants with clean water, from the hose, to remove all traces of contaminated floodwater. Empty any containers where floodwater has collected (plant pots, buckets etc). Even if your flood damage is caused by clean water (rain, for example), the standing water will quickly become a breeding ground for mosquitoes. If you have a water feature in your garden (a pond, for example), you should pump out the possibly contaminated floodwater and replace it with clean water. A central part of repairing your garden is to replace soil nutrients that may have been washed away by heavy flooding. If flowerbeds are still wet or soggy, the roots may be exposed - be careful not to step on them. Cover up these exposed roots with as much compost-enriched soil and mulch as you can. Start hunting for snails and fire ants. They almost always invade flooded yards and gardens. Look for snails in dark places such as under bricks, boards, porches etc. Remove them by hand (wear gloves if you wish). Snail poison is unnecessary and can harm pets or children. Use fire ant bait if you discover infested spots, and make sure to follow label directions. Finally, remember that the bacteria in floodwater may very well have contaminated fruits and vegetables picked from a flooded garden. This is particularly true for leafy vegetables such as spinach. Never eat produce from a flooded garden. Your garden may take a few weeks or a little more to completely recover from this catastrophe, so don't panic. Let your garden get rid of excess water to avoid the damage to the roots. Providing your garden with compost, farm yard manure or mushroom compost can help the earthworms to recover and in turn, prove to be a major remedy in case of extreme flood or water damage. Another vital hint is providing a dressing of calcified seaweed which stimulates the proliferation of soil micro-organisms in the plants. If you have plants in very low-lying areas, the recovery may be take much more time. Potting these plants is the best solution for a quick recovery. For more helpful ideas on this topic, check out our main page here: Auckland flood restorations
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