More than two weeks after the floodwaters receded, peach and ornamental tree farmers in Residential Group 16, Residential Area 12, Phu Thuong Ward (Tay Ho District, Hanoi) are racing to restore their gardens for the new season.

During the days of rising floodwaters from the Red River, Phu Thuong was one of the areas most heavily impacted, as it is a major hub for growing ornamental plants for Tet (Lunar New Year) in Hanoi. Entire peach orchards in Residential Group 16, along with those around Nhat Tan Bridge, were destroyed by the flood, leaving many farmers with nothing.

Nguyen Thi Thuy, a peach garden owner in Phu Thuong, shared that all the hard work and investment she put into her 1,000-square-meter garden was washed away by the flood. She estimated the losses at around 200 million VND, with an additional 50 million VND required to restore the land.

The peach trees had deep roots, so Thuy had to hire an excavator to remove the stumps, costing more than 3 million VND per day. Due to the high demand, it has become difficult to rent excavators as many households are in urgent need of restoring their land.

The residents are planning to raise the garden beds to prevent future flooding, which will further increase costs. The process of land restoration is expected to take about a week of continuous work.

Families with smaller gardens have opted to restore the land manually, without using excavators. However, uprooting the old trees by hand is a time-consuming and labor-intensive task.

According to the peach growers, it will take several years to fully rebuild the orchards. Even if new peach grafts are planted now, they will not be ready for harvest until the following Tet. The scarcity of seedlings has also driven up the cost.

Like the farmers in Phu Thuong, those in the Nhat Tan peach village are also working hard to restore their gardens after the floodwaters receded.

Do Thi Loi, a farmer in Nhat Tan, lost nearly 1,000 small peach trees.

Nguyen Thi Mat, another peach garden owner, has spent 15 million VND to raise the ground level of her 1,000-square-meter garden since the water receded.

“The price of small peach branches has tripled, from 3,000 VND to 10,000 VND per branch for grafting. Even if we plant new varieties now, the trees won't be ready for the market until next year," Mat shared.

In addition to the peaches, Mat’s white lily bulbs, which had been planted before the flood, were also damaged. Each 100kg of white lily bulbs costs about 5 million VND.

Dan Nguyen