Oh no! I am so sorry....
I hope the water drains off quickly!

Can you put on some boots and save the jugs?
Looks like you might need a canoe to get to them though!

Karen

So sorry, Karen. I hope it doesn't keep rising until it floods your house. Maybe it will stop soon and you can move your jugs up to a shelf or someplace where they'll be able to drain. Let us know what happens. Debby

I'll have to go out barefoot and rescue them. The rain has stopped, for now. I should go do that. But our house is on a slab, no basement. If it rain a lot more, it could seep into the house, and my worries will get much more bigger and the concern for the sprouts less. I can always grow more, but the house....that's a lot more money to fix than a few dollars worth of seeds.

Karen

So sorry, Karen. I hope your jugs will be OK. Most of northern Ohio is pretty flat, isn't it? So, no where to drain off.

We got a downpour yesterday in sw Ohio, only lasted about 1/2 hour, so I thought we didn't get much. Wrong! We got 0.3" in that time. It's just starting again now. And it's been so humid. I was working in the yard this morning- only 76 degrees but 81% humidity.

Karen

Wow. I won't complain about the rain here anymore.

Ok, I went out in an old pair of tennis shoes, rolled up my pants and waded through more than ankle deep water to rescue my babies. The jugs were either floating or totally submerged. Three jugs had no germination, was going to dump in July if they didn't. Safe to say now, they won't be sprouting. Their seeds, if they were any good, are out in my yard floating around somewhere. Yes, it is very flat up here, combined with clay soil and limestone slab under most of this area, it floods here easily, and takes a while for it to go away. The Sandusky River must be up high now, and will rise for sure as this rain heads for the rivers and streams. It'll be good for the lake, I guess, on the brighter side of things. And since posting the pics, the entire front yard is underwater, no grass to be seen except a baby patch by the driveway. *sniff*

Karen

Gee - how many inches did you get? That's quite a bit of rain you have there... hopefully it will stop....

Please make sure you are okay - and then worry about the sprouts -

Carrie

We got 4 inches in less than two hours. The rain has stopped, with spotty light showers for the overnight. Once the city opens up the drains, the water should recede pretty quickly, at least in the front yard. The back yard will be wet for some time. So much for planting the seedlings this weekend.

Karen

It's pouring here now too. I am at the top of a small hill but the block pours into my backyard. I really feel your pain. I have clay soil and a slab home too. Let us know how you and your house and your jugs do.

Oh Karen I feel for you. Glad the rain has stopped. Hope your saved seedlings do fine.

-StLGirl

Has that ever happened before? We needed rain, and finally got quit a bit, supposed to rain more, then warm up. My yard is pretty much elevated, and this part of town is elevated as well, but it makes all the bad stuff and grass grow faster.

I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I'd have waded through it, too, and rescue what I could. Sorry your planting plans for the weekend are disrupted.

If it isn't one thing, it's another.

This happened before in February of 2008, but because it was winter, the water stuck around for two months before it all went away. We've only lived here three years, and talking with the neighbor, this seems to be an ongoing problem with this property. Most everything made it through the first flood, I'm hopeful everything will be okay this time around too. The water seems to have receded a tad bit. Just hoping for no more rain. And it was yesterday I was complaining that the rain kept going off to the east or west of us. I guess I got plenty of what I asked for. LOL!

Karen

Wow Karen! I am so sorry to see what you're going through! We've had some water problems in the past, but nothing like yours. I sure hope the flooding recedes quickly for you!

Your jugs should be ok, if they don't soak for more than a couple of days. Besides, once you pick them up, they'll drain the water out of the bottom, rather than wash away! I think that might be better than if you'd planted them out? You have a lot of people here crossing their fingers for you, let's hope for the best.

The past couple of days, well actually since Friday, I have been planting out the smallest sprouts... not even seedling stage, (one at a time, for the most part) ...it's been threatening to rain the whole time. I have been so lucky this far, it's been the light, drizzling, but steady kind of rain yesterday and today. All sprouts, present and accounted for... I had wear my reading glasses to check on 'em! Little buggers, they are!

We had rain like that yesterday. It was like the sky exploded but we live on a hill so it didn't stand in our yard. However, my chert drive is another matter entirely. It has 4" ditches running down sides and really crouding the edges.. I am sorry about your babies..maybe they will survive!! Ellie

Thanks everybody! I woke this morning and saw that 90% of the water has drained away, thank goodness. I still have a couple beds partially underwater, but the water is still flowing through the gully in the backyard out to the ditch in the front yard, so most of that should be gone by the time I get home from work. What's left will take a few days to soak into the ground. I think the babies will be okay, they are laying flat in their jugs, but some seem to be perking up a little. They are all underneath the awning on the back porch where they can dry a little, in case more rain should fall. I'm just glad the water drained so quickly, pretty scary stuff when the water reaches the foundation and you don't know if or when it'll seep into the house. At least I won't need to water. But the mosquitoes.....they were bad before, now they'll be worse.

Karen

Good luck with this Karen, I can feel your pain as this happened to us last fall, 10 inches of rain over a couple days. My yard was worse than that. I had water on all four sides of the house and it was coming in the crawl space. But, like you said, "once they open the drains" it all goes away. All I can think of is "Why do you even close the freaking drains" or why dont you open them as soon as the rain starts????

Since this is a recurring issue, you probably have already thought about nice deep raised beds for your yard. Im thinking about a retaining wall also, but dont want to pay big bucks for the landscaper to do it and need to figure out the correct way to do it on my own. maybe when Im done planting out.

:)
Doris

Do you have clay out there? We've had heavy rains, but it usually takes DAYS of non-stop for water to actually pool.

Its not always the soil type, sometimes its your elevation in relation to the flood plain.

learned that the hard way.

Well, we do sit lower than the rest of the neighbors, so all their water comes into our yard. Dang neighbors, keep your rain in your yard! *shakes fists* LOL!

Karen

I hear that. After several years of flooding in my back yard I dug my own forty foot ditch across the back and am filling it with pebbles for the dry river bed effect and so my toddler can't drown in it.
I am amazed and pleased that it seems to be holding quite a bit of the water that runs through my place.
I'll also say that mounding has done my garden a world of good and this spring I added a raised garden veg. bed.

If you ever want to chat about horrible flooding and clay ohio springs email me.

Also I am thrilled that your plants will pull through. I've found that even putting them up on a bench helps in the heavy rain so they can have some drainage through the containers.

Can someone explain "once the city opens up the drains?" I'm in Wilmington, DE, and never heard this. I just assumed the rain water did its thing and drained into the gutters. I've never had an issue.

I feel so bad for you, we didn't get that much rain in NE Ohio. I really feel for ya. I hope they survive.

Wow Karen,
How awful!

I always wonder how those folks in the flood plain manage
to pick up and move on. Thankfully, it was no worse than
flooded jugs.

We had 4 inches of rain here on mon/ tuesday. I have
a bunch of flooded jugs myself.

I hope you have some successful germination.

Mary

Tepelus,
I hope your water has receded.
We are getting some rain now. Nothing like what you got, and we actually need it.
I was shocked by your pictures.
Pls let us know how it turns out.

ellen

You know what I really hate about all this rain, finding out how many of my containers I forgot to put drainage holes in. Blah.

Tepelus, everything okay now? You drying out?

Deanna