Garden harvested despite flood
Every year, hundreds of thousands of gardeners across
toe nation suffer a loss in precious produce due to their liv
ing m areas subject to occasional flooding. The Rev. Daniel
r Williams, Jr. of Pennsylvania, relates his restoring of a
flood damaged garden in hopes that others who might suffer
similar destruction can benefit from his experience ...
“Hurricane Agnes rampaged through the Susquehanna
River basin in June 1972, bringing the worst flood in 100
years The carnage was terrible. My small organic garden,
40 by 70 feet, is located about 300 yards from the river and
was under 5 feet of water for about 3 days. The slime and
mud destroyed nearly every plant. Warnings against eating
contaminated vegetables were issued by all public agen
cies
“When the flood struck, we were in Manitoba for a work
ing vacation... Upon hearing the flood news, we immediate
ly rushed home.
“The garden, or what was left of it, almost made us cry.
The carefully nurtured vegetables and strawberries were
covered with a 6 to 12 inch coating of slime and mud. One
could not walk in it for fear of slipping and falling.
“The newspapers were saying that the crops were over
for this year because of the pollution in the water and
residue. We kept looking at the mess and decided we could
do something about it.
P. I. ROHRER & BRO., INC.
“We called a farmer friend and asked him to deliver a
load of hay. Without removing the slime, we spread the hay
over the whole garden. Now we could walk without breaking
our necks or worrying about tracking contaminated soil into
the house. The next step was to gather seeds and plants.
Most of the greenhouses had dumped their surplus. When
we explained our plight, they usually helped find odd plants
and were glad to give them to us. We found enough to get
started.
“Sweet corn was out of the question because of the
season; however, green and wax beans, squash, carrots and
beets all had enough time to grow. We set out tomato, broc
coli and green pepper plants.
“We usually spread granular limestone to sweeten the
soil but it reacts rather slowly, so we substituted builder’s
lime. It was a lot of work because, for each plant we set in
or each row we seeded, we bad to pull back the thick layer
of hay and break through the rapidly hardening mud to
reach our good organic topsoil. We mixed the soil and
limestone as well as we could, planted, and as soon as the
plants were large enough, pulled the hay mulch up around
them.
“It was back breaking work and knowing that our efforts
might prove futile didn’t make it any easier.
Lancasler'Parmihg, Saturday, May 14,1977-J-89 ’
“We did not have time to cultivate; we simply left the
garden alone. Weeds never pushed through the 6 inches'of
mud. About the middle of August, we picked our first broc
coli. The tomatoes came in a little later. We had lots of
beans by September and the peppers found their way into
our salads. We had a new crop of lettuce every 3 weeks and
the carrots and beets were ready in the fall. How grateful
we were for the bountiful harvest.
“Much of the hay decomposed and helped to granulate the
sticky mud. Breaking through the flood-deposited layer as
we did must have let in oxygen because the organisms in the
organic topsoil revived and worked from the bottom up to
break up the clay.
“The carrots did not do as well as they should have. This
was corrected on the second try by adding sand to the soil.
The roots were pulled in late October and though small
were tasty.
“As a result of this experience, we have used a hay mulch
every year. We now have a home-built geodesic greenhouse
for starting plants and store our surplus in a natural cave.
Oh, by the way, we moved to a home on the slopes of a
mountain. No point in tempting fate ”
Fitzgerald to
lead ASCS
WASHINGTON, D.C. -
Secretary of Agriculture Bob
Bergland last week named
Ray Fitzgerald as ad
ministrator designate of
Agricultural Stabilization
and Conservation Service
(ASCS), U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
As ASCS administrator,
Fitzgerald will administer
the Department’s farm
commodity programs; cost
sharing conservation
programs; national defense
programs relating to farm
production, conservation,
income stabilization, and the
handling, storage and
distribution of grains and
foods; and natural disaster
emergency assistance
programs
Fitzgerald, 53, a native of
Plankinton, S.C., has been
president of Agricultural
Cooperative Development
Internation (ACDI) here
since 1975. The organization
is a non-profit technical and
consulting firm established
by U.S. farm cooperatives to
develop and maintain liaison
with cooperative groups in
less developed countries.
He will be returning to
ASCS, having been its deputy
administrator and vice
president of the Commodity
Credit Corporation from 1962
to 1969, and assistant deputy
administrator in 1961-62. As
deputy administrator, he
headed field operations,
handling price support,
alnd use, commodity storage
and sale, livestock fee and
defense activities through
AS OS's 2,900 county and 50
state offices. Earlier he had
worked with barter
programs of Foreign
Agricultural ervice and in
liaison with the U.S.
Department of Defense,
Agency for International
Development, and the In
ternational Grains
Agreement.
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