It rained... There was flooding!

As many may know heavy rain hit northern Illinois last week.  Although I can say that I did not suffer any damage or loss at my home (I still live in an apartment on the third floor!) my gardens were not so lucky.

This is the DuPage River, west branch overflowing near my garden.  The first pangs of panic struck when I saw this on my drive over!

I could get up the back entrance to the garden space, but I could not actually get to the garden.  Of my 3/4 of an acre about two-thirds were covered with water.

This is a view from the edge of the garden back toward the road.

The garden rows are underwater and the berm by the road that keeps out the winter salt may be keeping the water in...

It think I have shown the fence before, that is it in the foreground, beyond the fence is the worst part of the garden where you cannot even see that there are rows of plants planted in there.  After taking this photo I left.

My heart was heavy.  I have had this rented land since before I moved into the apartment and we have lived there for 12 years now. I moved all of my personal plants here when we moved so that I could return them to a garden when we finally decide on a house. It gets wet and soggy sometimes in this space and one cannot always go there in April because  it is muddy and I want to avoid compacting the soil, but it has never been like this.

I was at the Garden Clubs of Illinois Convention over the weekend so I have not yet been back to see if the water has receded, but I expect much of it has.  I decided to allow my obligations from keep me from returning and getting upset.  If the plants do not get air they will die as they did not have much growth to sustain them because of our unseasonably cold Spring.

I am lecturing tomorrow night, so I will not have many follow up photos to post, but I will share an update when I have one.  For now I think I have a few pre-programmed posts which will pop up and I will take a few photos at my program tomorrow, but I do not have much else to share as my excitement for Spring is a bit impaired.

I would like to say that I am thankful that I do not have this garden issue and a home issue like so many others around my area do, so I will be grateful about that!