The threat to the garden - spring floods

The sun began to burn stronger. In this weather, the snow on the site quickly turns into water, it is good if the territory on which the fruit or berry plants are flat. In this case, water at the most unfavorable coincidence of circumstances will simply stagnate, but those who have plots on the slope should take care. The whole point is that the streams of melt water, especially if it heats abruptly, rush down the slope washing everything in its path. Not only the top layer of soil, which is nutritious and very useful to plants, can be affected, but also the root system. After powerful floods of thawed water, the roots can be blurred, bare and exposed to desiccation, burns of burning sun or damage from possible recurrent frosts, which are bound to continue.

What to do? Let's talk today about how to prevent the sudden melting of snow, how to protect your site from erosion and destruction of the upper fertile layer and what to do if you came to the country, and in the middle of the ditch that formed as a result of runoff thawed waters.

Let's start with what can be done to prevent the sudden melting of snow. Of course, we are far from being omnipotent and we can not change the temperature of the air, however, it is still within our power to influence the melting of snow. What can be done before it's too late? As soon as we noticed that the temperature began to rise and the snowball is going to melt intensely, we should go to the garden. Dress warmly, it will take a long time to work, although the duration of work in the garden, of course, will depend on its area, in sections of several hundred you can manage in just a couple of hours.
So, what do we do? From the elementary school physics course, we all remember that the compacted snow melts much more slowly than the loose one. We saw probably more than once how long is the track maintained? Sometimes the snow around the tracks from the skis has completely melted away, and the compacted "road" still does not want to melt. Here's something like that we need to do with the snow in the garden. We boldly begin to trample down the snow and the denser we make it, the easier it will be for the soil in the garden and the roots of the plants. At the same time try not only to walk as you want, but trample down the snow across the slope. You need to do so that the wide part of the foot is across the possible flow of water, that is, you do not need to make a channel of future brooks, descending along the slope, and in every possible way to prevent the current of water down.
If the site is large, then you can not compact it all, but rammed with strips, with areas of uncompacted snow with a width of 1-2 meters. It can be even better, water, draining, will linger on these sites and soak into the soil, not washing it, but enriching it with moisture.
By sealing the snow in this way it is possible and to hedge. The fact is that not always for a warm period with intense snowmelt is further warming. It happens and so it suddenly freezes, it colder and even there is intense snow, which can melt in the first place, also causing damage to both soil and plant roots. So snow falls on a compacted snow pillow, which under the influence of negative temperatures can turn into a strong nast, melting away on it by rapid flows, without affecting the upper layer of the soil.

In addition to the compaction of snow, there are other techniques to slow down its melting and to hold water in the area. For example, laborious and more complex, but it seems to us very effective. The method provides for the earliest and first earthworks in the garden - the digging of furrows. This method simultaneously allows you to stop the sharp flow of melt water and increase its absorption by the soil and additional loosening. This method can be used either in regions where snow is not very abundant and the soil freezes not deep and quickly thaws, or when some of the snow has already melted, the soil has thawed a little and soon a mass meltdown may be observed. It is especially important to use furrow cutting if there is an even more elevated neighbor area above your site, from which streams of flood waters can flow to yours.
Digging furrows necessarily across the possible drain of water. To do this, on a strip about half a meter wide, snow is removed, completely laying it on the lower side of the future furrow in the form of a small shaft. On the liberated soil dig a furrow 3-4 meters in length and about half the bayonet's depth.
And what ways do you know?