How we overcame a flood… Twice.

Farmland is becoming more and more scarce, and more expensive — sometimes you just don’t get the option to choose.. But even if you do, land comes with quirks, and you have to work with what conditions you’ve got, and you’re working with something you cannot control. When we purchased our farm in a flood plain, many folks warned us of the way the land transforms when floods come. Flood risk is easy to dismiss when you’re standing on green grass, blue skies, in beautiful rolling fields, and a lot of hope. For our first three years of owning our land, we never once had any issues with a flood. Many call the type of flood that would overtake our farm a “100-year flood” in our area.. The last serious flood was in 2018, before that 1997, and the numbers go on and on.. and they don’t add to 100 years. But my thought was.. perhaps it’ll be 10-20 years before we experience a flood — maybe by then things will be different. I’ll be wiser, I’ll be better equipped to handle a flood. A flower farmer I follow on Instagram experienced a full flood of their farm in 2023, then again in 2024. Sunflowers were poking flowers above high waters in her fields. It felt really close to my heart because of the risk we face farming in a flood plain. I even emailed asking for her advice on how they faced it with (understandably) no reply.

I want to share what we did — for other farmers that may find themselves in a similar geographical location, and in the face of climate change.

The Plans

NOAA website has a way to track the rising of river levels, and the accuracy and timeline are very helpful for us to create strategy.

Our first ever flood, February 17-23 2025, waters in the Ohio River were predicted to rise. We mostly ignored the threat, until waters from a small treeline had risen overnight to where they were a few yards from our woody shrub field. We checked the website to where the levels were at, and where they would crest.. something like 10 feet higher than where they were just yards from our field. I am about 5 ft tall, so if I stand at the water line, everything in my line of sight would be underwater. Measurements showed it would overtake half our farm. My experience was just of dizzying denial and panic.

My first word of advice: Make a general plan for what you would do in a flood.

That was helpful for me for our first flood, because I was so upset and panic-stricken I couldn’t think, but because I made a rough plan for what I thought I might do in advance — that helped put me into action. Here was how we managed our floods as flower and produce farmers.

Partial Flood Plan

Dig up plants that would be affected by flood waters, label them, and move them to higher ground.

1) If your plan is to dig, dig plants in an organized fashion.. one area at a time, one variety type at a time. Try to keep organized in the chaos. The more organized you are, the more you’ll thank yourself when you’re putting it back together. If you’re digging many of one variety, tying twine around them was helpful to know they all belong to the same type if a label gets lost. Having a field map already made on Google Sheets in advance of our current beds and their varieties was also helpful for labeling.

2) In advance of a flood, have labels on all plants. In a situation where you don’t have much time, having labels already on them was very helpful. Keep blank labels on hand for situations where you need to label plants. Be specific, write any identifiers if you can’t think of the variety (“Hydrangea, blue”)

3) Use empty crates, empty plastic plant pots of all sizes stored for situations like this. We don’t keep a whole lot around, but I was glad I had a stack in our barn. They were very very helpful in this situation.

4) Call for help! The more people to help dig up, the better — just make sure they know their role and your plan to keep things organized.

5) Have a location in mind to create a temporary nursery. We created a temporary nursery at high ground with our potted plants and root ball plants in and next to our hoop house. We dug roses bare root (meaning no soil around them) since they were still dormant, thus would require that they are buried to keep their roots hydrated. At high ground, we dug trenches and stuck rose roots in them with their tag. We stored plants in our greenhouse, which was nice protection in the frost/icy temperatures, but drastically warmed up on a sunny day.

After 2 weeks, plants that were in our temporary nursery were desperate to go back out in the field — we saw signs of wilting, shriveling, etc. Water plants that you can while beds are prepared or plant out right away back in their location.

6) Once plants are dug up, the plan does not stop. Have a plan for post-flood planting. Consider prioritizing plants in or nearest their growing season. For example, I replanted iris and peonies first.

7) Study the water flow, and topography. Take note of everything! I was surprised by where water rose higher, how water spilled into different areas, where it remained. Take note of the flood stage, take pictures and note the stage. Make predictions of higher levels and where it would affect. This will be helpful for future floods.

Observations

February Flood Conditions

McAlpine Flood Level: 59.9ft

Temperatures:10 F to 32 F

Waters: Very cold. Gently rose and fell. No current. Ice layer of 1/2” formed on the water.

Flood Speed: Fast for initial days (5+ feet in first days), slows down as it approaches crest day, crest lasts 1-2 days, falls off quickly. Start to finish was about 7 days.

Debris/Cleanup: No trash, thin silt layer on weed fabric that washed off in the rain, fabric mostly stayed in place, drip irrigation floated to surface, new mulch floats away, wood pallets float, older/composted mulch stays in place, minimal washout on beds.

Growing stage: DORMANT

Post-flood plant observations:

• Woody shrub (SMOKETREE Royal Purple) stems did not discolor, freeze. Ice broke stems off as waters submerged. Stems were turgid / alive immediately after. No affect weeks later. Leaf nodes appeared normal. HYDRANGEA Annabelle, a plant that’s dormant to the ground, leafed from the base normally. Both were slow to come out of dormancy following the flood, but did not die. Submerged deepest at 8ft.

• Rose shrub (ROSE Sweet Mademoiselle) remained green on their stems at the base showing signs of life even in dormancy. This is a very hardy rose for us so I expected it would persevere (I dug all other roses that were small, young, or more sensitive). Branches above ground eventually turned black near the tips, but leafed out fully by late March, with a lot of basal growth. Some David Austin roses were accidentally left behind, and stems greened up fine. Submerged 4-5ft.

• Perennials (Iris, Yarrow, Rudbeckia, Goldenrod, Veronica, Phlox, Grass ‘Sea Oats’, Sedum, Daffodils) rebounded quickly and were green at the time of the flood. Weeks following they continued growth. Peonies that were accidentally left popped up without issue. We lost all specialty tulips planted in our gardens. Submerged 2-6ft.

Thoughts Overall (First Flood): Plants in dormancy, especially plants that are cold hardy / native will rebound normally with some delay, perhaps. Hard to tell if the delay is because we had a very intense winter. Plants with less tolerance to cold will not survive and must be dug up. Plants in the nursery survived. Make sure all roots are kept hydrated / soil covered. I theorize it helped that plants were in dormancy, the water temperatures were cold, and the water was not rushing that plants survived. If it is possible, plants should be moved to higher ground and out of risky areas.

Our second flood occurred 2 months later, April 6 - 13 2025. Heavy spring rains and a storm system stuck around in the Ohio Valley giving us record setting rain. NOAA predicted originally flood stage would be the same as the last (McAlpine Lower: ~59ft), then changed their predictions a few days later to flood an additional 6 ft, then raised it again to an additional 2 ft. Flood Level Prediction: 68.4ft — our whole farm would go underwater.

Entire Farm Flood Plan: prioritize structures, electrical safety, secure or remove loose items, dig plants of high priority/value

1) Call for help right away — the more help the better. Call for electric disconnection if it will be affected. Call friends to help move items. Have family/friends/helpers bring resources like a trailer/truck. Wheelbarrows (especially 2 wheel) / wagons are helpful.

2) Work one area at a time. We worked to pick up any loose items to move them off the farm to higher ground. Everything. Remove trash, remove stored items, remove any non-fixed items. We removed all tools, all mechanical tools like tillers/mowers, palettes, lumber, fabric, totes, fertilizers, beehives, bird houses/feeders, etc.

3) Secure items that you can’t remove from floating away using stones/bricks/straps. Things we thought would stay in the ground lifted.. rose arbors, wood fence posts in concrete floated away.

4) Dig plants of personal value, rarity, high dollar value first. In our case, we have over 500 roses, hundreds of peonies, irises, woody shrubs — all that had already been dug up and transplanted just two months prior. I had to come to the hard decision of what to do with every plant on our farm at risk. I care about each one, and I’ve invested much in each one — but I couldn’t dig them all. We dug out roses that were most sensitive, small, rare, important, etc. We left woody shrubs, irises, most peonies, lavender, trees, and many roses. Plants had broken dormancy at this point. They were dug up WITH SOIL ON THE ROOTS, put in pots with their tags, and REPLANTED THE DAY WATER RECEDED. Replanting was our #1 priority as to not further damage what plants we did save.

5) Lift greenhouse plastic / open doors and windows to allow for water movement. We used 8ft T-post stakes to hold vented plastic up high, rolled inward so rain could shed off the greenhouse and not pull the rolled up plastic down. We rested the T post on a brick/rock/stake so that it would not rip the weed suppression fabric under it, or sink and fall out of place.

6) Dig any other plants if there’s time, resources, and energy. I dug out many seedlings I had just planted to save the crops (tweedia, snapdragons, larkspur). It didn’t take very long and I figured would be well worth the effort so I would not be too far off track.

Observations

April Flood Conditions

McAlpine Flood Level: 68.4ft

Temperatures: 32-65 F

Waters: Cold. Gently rose and fell. No current other than wind causing wake.

Flood Speed: Fast for initial days, slows down as it approaches crest day, crest lasts 1-2 days, falls off quickly. Start to finish was about 7 days.

Debris/Cleanup: Driftwood (mulch, chopped wood, limbs, wood debris), leaning wood posts.

Growing stage: BREAKING DORMANCY / IN GROWTH: Leafing out to various degrees, for some plants flowering/producing buds (peonies/daffodils)

Post-flood plant observations:

• Flowering Shrubs: Mixed results. Leaves wilted, periods after of rebounding, then leaves would shrivel again. They are now regrowing new leaves 1 month post-flood. All plants are alive.

• Roses: Surprisingly unaffected. Leaves were sickly green for a few days, then quickly greened up and pushed buds within 2 weeks. Blooms showed up 1 month later! Plants that died/slowest to regrow are (unsurprisingly) grafted or immature small plants.

• Irises: Surprisingly affected. ALL iris plants experienced leaf wilt almost immediately and rotted their leaf blades down to the rhizome despite by nature being a semi-aquatic plant. Only now are they starting to push new leaves, some are not growing at all. Not sure how many survived or if they’ll regrow this year.

• Peonies: Rebounding. Wilted immediately after flood waters receded. New growth shoots folded over, then shriveled in the days following. Within 2-3 weeks, new shoots occurred from the root.

• Lavender: Minimal signs of life. Bendy stems, but not showing any sign they’re still alive 1 month post-flood.

• Annuals: Mixed results. We had not planted many annuals at the time of the flood. Tulips did not rot, but never bloomed. We lost snapdragons in the field and greenhouse. We lost poppies. Some sweet peas have rebounded. Pansies rebounded. Seedlings pushed back up through soil if they did survive.

• Perennials: Mostly positive results. Yarrow and sedum quickly rebounded. Feverfew was completely lost. Rudbeckia mostly rebounded, and rudbeckia seedlings pushed through the soil. Larkspur died back to the ground and sent new shoots, and their seedlings pushed through the soil. Echinacea, goldenrod, black eyed susan, veronica, lamb’s ear, liriope, sea oats grass, and more died back to the ground but resprouted within 2-3 weeks.

• Trees / Shrubs: Positive results. Mature trees were not affected. Young trees were also not affected, but did have some leaves above the water line. A young Bur Oak tree has finally begun to sprout leaves. Serviceberries lost their blooms, but responded quickly with new blooms within 1-2 weeks. Blueberries also lost their blossoms. Our espalier apple trees did not wilt leaves and even pushed apple blossoms within 2 weeks.

Note to self (perhaps to you too, dear reader):

Release Control. You never had it. And you never will. Acceptance, fluidity, and grit is essential to this work.

It’s hard, so give yourself grace. Tragedy is sometimes unavoidable. Not anything you could have changed. Call a friend, get away if you can, rest, and try not to dwell on the situation as you wait it out. Don’t worry to respond to everyone’s inquiries, messages — people are SO kind, and just want to express their sorrow, extend their help. They don’t necessarily want a reply. You don’t have to feel bad. There’s so much going on, you’re thinking about it all - and you’re doing the best you can.

Know it’s all temporary. As a worrier, it was easy for me to catastrophize the whole situation.. it’s easy to feel that way when you look out and cannot recognize anything. It’s easy to feel doom and negativity. You WILL come out of this.

Take heart in knowing that plants are resilient. And if you’ve decided to farm, SO ARE YOU.