- File: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
- Downtown Montpelier during the July flood
This "backstory" is a part of a collection of articles that describes some of the obstacles that Seven Days reporters faced while pursuing Vermont news, events and people in 2023.
When the flood hit Vermont this summer, I found myself living a double life. During the day I was a breaking-news reporter, driving across the state to interview Vermonters affected by the downpours; my coworkers and I worked long hours to bring a last-minute cover story to fruition.
After work, though, I was dealing with my own flood-related trouble. The Intervale in Burlington — home to my beloved collective garden — was underwater.
Related 'Historic and Catastrophic' : Unrelenting Rain Swamped Vermont's Cities, Towns and Hamlets. The Recovery Is Just Beginning.
My misfortune was admittedly small potatoes compared to the wrenching tragedies I was witnessing while reporting: flooded homes, destroyed cars, decimated downtowns. But losing Seedsong — the name of the garden I'm a part of — was personally devastating.
When I first arrived in Burlington to work at Seven Days, in June 2022, I didn't have many friends. I found Seedsong while perusing volunteer opportunities through City Market, Onion River Co-op's member-worker program. After just one garden shift, I decided to officially join.
Unlike community gardens — where individuals have their own box plots — Seedsong members share one large garden. Members of Seedsong work weekly shifts, have monthly potlucks and share the harvest, no matter how big or small.
Related Did Your Garden Flood? Here's What to Know
It made me feel at home in Vermont. I spent hours after work each week in the Intervale, harvesting carrots and squashing cucumber beetles alongside my new friends. In the winter, we spent evenings planning the next season's garden. We had big ambitions: rows of garlic, spinach and a new variety of potatoes. In the spring, we planted fragile starts in cold soil.
The weekend before the flood, we had gathered to celebrate the garden's July abundance. Green tomatoes blushed pink. Peonies had popped. Oblivious to the impending storm, a garden friend and I worried about sufficient watering.
When we learned that the Winooski River would most likely breach, we rushed to harvest what veggies we could alongside other farmers and gardeners at the Intervale. I drove straight from Johnson, where I had spent the day interviewing sources affected by the flooding, to sort through vegetables.
- File: Melissa Pasanen
- An Intervale garden path after the flood
The next day, the water came, decimating our crops. As we mourned the lost harvest, we wondered: Could we eat a squash that never touched contaminated water? What about a tomato that grew after the flood? How long until we could replant? In fact, could we ever replant in this same spot?
I pitched a story about post-flood gardening to our food team and got to work. Some of what I learned determined Seedsong's next steps. We waited more than a month before returning to our plot and decided to forego harvesting for the rest of the season. We planted cover crops to restore the nutritional health of the soil and tested our garden for heavy metal contamination.
I'm not glad that Seedsong flooded, but my front-row seat to the flood helped me better understand its toll.
Comments
Comments are closed.
From 2014-2020, Seven Days allowed readers to comment on all stories posted on our website. While we've appreciated the suggestions and insights, right now Seven Days is prioritizing our core mission — producing high-quality, responsible local journalism — over moderating online debates between readers.
To criticize, correct or praise our reporting, please send us a letter to the editor or send us a tip. We’ll check it out and report the results.
Online comments may return when we have better tech tools for managing them. Thanks for reading.