I make my gardens with drainage as a main consideration. Since it is somewhat wet about 9 years out of 10 here in April, May, and the first half of June, I do some hilling and ridging. Also I have made most of them more sandy and peaty which makes them looser and better aerated. I also do some hoeing and forking when things are extra wet to aerate the soil.

Boy, no kidding huh? Coming up on ten inches in a little over two weeks for us, and raining now. This is when I am thankful for highly-drained soil.

Just waiting it out here in MD.We did put the veggie garden in the high spot in yard in anticipation of heavy rains and it seems well drained. Getting hammered again with the heavy rainfall today. Fortunately, tornadoes have not been close to us so far today - still have tornado watch here.

Rained steady all night. More predicted for thursday. Holy smokes! Just three weeks ago I was worried it was going to be another dry spring....

pnbrown - me too! Be careful what you wish for! I think we got about 2" yesterday, so that makes almost 9" since May 19 - by June 19 we may have 11-12"! Aug 2011 got over 12" and everything drowned/rotted/died. Tomatoes I planted in sandy loam raised (mounded) beds last week were already showing signs of edema yesterday morning, I may have to replant from leftovers. Determinates in the house garden don't look like they have edema but very yellow and have not put on any new growth. Unfortunately I'm running low on spares - planted 10 each of Independence Day and Best Boy, only have 2 Ind. Day and 5 BB left (and no more Cheeseman's or Chadwick's cherries, only 2 Cosmonaut Volkov) so if they all drown/get diseased I can't replace them.

Let's hope the summer isn't a repeat of 2011...

It's like a party with a bad mix guest list: lettuces and brassicas and grass happy, but tomatoes threatening to yellow their leaves, and possible rot in some veg roots, and tiny new herb seedlings drinking too much, reeling and staggering. Weeds starting fights.

Carol

Clover and weeds going crazy here, but my carrots have disappeared after germinating nicely, lettuce really isn't doing much yet, I do have to thin my brassicas b/c I barely had a chance to weed yesterday before the rain started. Only about half my edmamame (2011 seed) germinated and now since that's planted in trenches about 1/3 of that looks yellow/brown spotted so will have to replant. But just checked during a lull and all the tomatoes planted this weekend still look good, last week's don't look any worse than they did yesterday morning, though my Bush Blue Lake beans have some deformed leaves and something has been chomping the first 2 leaves off others and some Kentucky Wonder too so I might have to replant some green beans as well as edamame (I was already planning on a 2nd planting of bush beans, just not quite this soon).

Don't know when I'll get the peppers in - having the same problem hardening them off as I did the tomatoes last month.

Heavy soil and too much rain = may not plant veggie garden this year. I'll need several days of sunny dry weather to prepare the soil for planting and the 10 day doesn't look good.

Yep, again thankful for sandy loam. It does have some advantages. In heavy soil for a spring like this I guess you have to find a ridge-top...

Interesting that someone mentioned brassicas are doing well in all the water. I've seen a lot of leaf purpling on mine since the excessive rain started. The cabbages don't seem to mind, the broccoli doesn't look good at all.

They started to look a little better after I gave them a dose of liquid fert, but another floody forecast for today.

2-3 inches expected tomorrow. DH said it was a good thing I didn't sign on for full season of market. No sense in even checking things again until this weekend, but I expect that even if things aren't drowned I'll have to replant due to disease. Already seeing fungal spores on strawberry leaves - going to thin those today after it dries out a tiny bit more. He wants to mow the lawn but we've got standing water to might as well wait.

Raised beds and growing greens will always lead to success in a rainy year. I am so glad I decided a few years ago that roots and greens are what I really want. Beans and tromboncino, sure, but the rest is a pain, and not that much vitamins. I have one full bed of celery, courtesy of two plants going to seed last year. No work was needed. Red mustard and arugula also are all over the place.

This would have been a GREAT year to be growing celery! It loves the wet.

What do you mean by the "rest", Glib? Fruiting non-leguminious crops like squash, tomato, corn, pepper?

Glad I am not alone in my little rowboat. Very glad I made the choice to do raised beds. Not sure if I should unmulch because there are mushrooms growing in it. Tomorrow sounds horrible.
My snow peas are loving it, so far tomatoes are o.k. Squash and zuks so far so good. Fingers crossed.

I don't like it when a heat loving crop fails or delivers pitiful crops. This year is one of them. Peppers, eggplants, melons, okra, and I must have 30 of them all told. I have other things about summer crops that I do not like: cukes and beetles, zucchini and SVB, and I find that if I eat more than a pound of tomatoes (a common occurrence at peak) I don't feel right. I have really become a Michigan farmer from 200 years ago. The greens part of the garden is the Amazon right now.

Granted last year it was the greens suffering, but here, it is much more trouble with the fruiting plants. 1-2 inches tonight, flood watch. I scrambled outside and seeded radicchio in between the lettuce.

I don't have many crops that don't have some potential problem like that. Perhaps no co-incidence, the ones that are trouble-free are mostly self-perpetuating: walking onion, sun choke, parsnip, mustard and naps kale. Exceptions are sweet potato and non-sweet maize.

And again rain, quite a bit. A northeaster in June, like last year.

Tuesday night at Scout Court of Honor priest gave the blessing, mentioned "Is there a merit badge for ark building?" LOL. Really thinking that's not a bad idea right now. I haven't been able to get out to check on anything since Wed but I'm about to give up on the season - market starts on Wed. I made jam with frozen berries yesterday (maybe call it "preserves" since I don't know whether it will set) just to have something to sell in case the greens aren't ready and the strawberries are moldy.

I have extra tomato plants getting leggy in pots, and I *was* trying to harden off peppers to put out this week (HA!) so maybe when it dries out a bit (next Wed?) I can still plant but it's going to be a late harvest. I'm sure my edamame is drowned by now.

We have multiple flood warnings - but at least it's not like Europe is seeing.

When I started this thread, it wasn't a request for lots of rain early. But it keeps on coming. Maybe a couple of drier days this weekend but more precipitation early in the week.

Toms, beans just hanging in there, but all twelve of the peppers only have a few leaves left. Lettuce and celery seem fine.

Perhaps the landscape material wasn't such a good idea this year as it may be further limiting the evaporation of moisture from the soil.

As we chanted at Woodstock...."No rain, no rain!" Well maybe.for a week anyways.

Well, that is the nature of the beast. You cannot trust it. All you can/may do is to cope with it. Fighting the elements has bee the ongoing challenge to man kind. It is not just our little hobby little backyard garden, it is fighting for life for those who do it to earn a living. I feel their pain. I salute courage of the farmers who never give up the hope. Tomorrow will be sunny.
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My dislikes have to do with the reward system. You plant a garden, then you want to eat it. Doing work for no eating is the most frustrating part. Ask me how I feel about deer.

We are expecting 4" of rain in a 24 h period here. I know that's peanuts compared to what you guys are getting, but our normal June rainfall amount is just over 2". Just last week I was complaining about having to water all the time. Most of our soils are heavy clay, although I am lucky to have some gardens with loamy, reasonably well-drained soil. I hope none of my eggplants rot.

My squash and zuchinni are doing a lot better than I expected, but I do keep moving the small fruits so they don't drown. Tomatoes, some doing better than others. Very worried, the farm my horse is on uses 2-4-D, but I made sure to use what had been sitting for at least 6 months, some of my palnts have a slight leaf curl. Only in the bed that was amended with that. Hoping it was just too much rain.
We got 2 1/2 inches yesterday.

We got several inches from Wednesday into late Thursday afternoon. I am now very grateful for living on a hill. My garden that looked like a lake at 6:00 am had NO standing water on it when I got home last night. Of course, all my broccoli plants are lying down but they are not snapped off so DH is supposed to straighten them up today and put support stakes behind them. Everything else came through pretty well. Tonight I am going to spray all the tomatoes with Daconil and then hope that they don't blight from being so wet. My peas are absolutely ecstatic with this weather, but they are in a raised bed. We are going to be picking and freezing a bunch of them this weekend. I am so VERY thankful that they didn't get blown away!

Glib, I bet I feel toward rabbits like you feel toward deer. "I have a garden" should be all the reason needed to get a No Limit year-round permit!!!

Edie