raining non-stop

It had rained for the past 17+ days at our house. We supposedly have one day without rain today (I will be at work...) and then the forecast has 8 more days of rain. On many days, we had at least one period of very heavy rain that leaves the garden absolutely muddy. On days with light rain, it had rained most of the day. We haven't been able to sow any August seeds. Soil is clay. Hope to get at least something in the ground. The soil is well draining and dries relatively quickly, I should add - but as soon as it does, it rains again.

The seeds are fall annuals (i.e. brassicas, cool season herbs). The patches in question are overgrown with giant weeds, from all the rain...

On the bright side, our cucumbers have done remarkably well. I did sow some greens in the coldframe.

Any advice to manage this situation?
Can't cultivate muddy soil. Hard to pull out weeds without removing giant clods. Worried the seeds will wash away.
Should I sow in trays and transplant later? (not something I really want to do). Should I wait and sow a bit later and hope they mature in time?

My area has been in a drought for years and then the same as your situation.

Sorry about the weeds brought on by the rains though those will need to be removed.

Yeah is hard to plant in mud, let the clods dry and shake the weed later to remove the clods ....

And it sounds like a good idea to start indoors and transplant.

We went through this in the spring. April and May had 2x the normal amount of rain. We did not have rain that many days in a row but we would get several inches in a short period of time. One of my spring plantings was completely washed away.

I do not know how your garden area lays out but mine is on a very gentle southwest facing slope. I would make sure to get out in the heaviest parts of the rain and observe what was happening with the runoff.

After watching during the middle of a good torrent, I first decided to border the garden area. I used oak firewood splits. The garden area was already a little bit built up due to the application of compost and mulch and it was an easy first step. That helped a little but some areas were still getting saturated and washing out.

Next I decided to cut in 3 swales. That helped some more and slowed the water down but I still had some areas washing out.

When that did not solve the issue completely, I cut an open trench in the area that got the most runoff and it flows directly down to a retention pond lower on the property and bypasses the garden area/swales completely.

Between those three things, the garden does not get saturated and wash out like it used to and I capture the runoff I want to capture at this time of year with the swales.

Another thing I have done is to plant things all over the property. I have tomatoes by my bamboo, roses close to some fruit trees and bushes, a raspberry patch around an old tree stump, etc. Diversify.

I say all of that to say, observe the area during the heavy parts of the rain and start making changes to help with how the area manages water and you should get it dialed in and usable no matter how much rain you get.

The picture is an older one and does not show all of the garden expansion (green rectangle) but it should illustrate the steps we took that I detail above.

I feel your pain! We usually get a dry spell in spring for planting, but it can sometimes be along time waiting (and watching the weather forecast for a break!)
You've had some good suggestions above. As regards the weeds - it depends on what they are. If they are just large annual weeds like fat hen, you could just chop and drop them. They will quickly wilt and act as a mulch that will smother more weed seedlings and feed the soil underneath. Even perennial weeds may be knocked back enough by cutting to mean they don't grow back before spring, particularly if you cover the roots with the upper plant debris. Then just hoe where you want your seedling plants rather than the whole patch (less work too!)
If you really aren't going to get a break in the rain then transplants may be your best option. The seedlings won't mind the rain much, but treading on and working wet soil can compact it which means it will drain less well and have less porespace for roots and water permeation.

Would you mind asking the rain clouds to hurry on a bit further north?

In spring I was using lots of sawdust to de-mud the paths and as mulch. It also stops evaporation when it’s too dry. I think that sawdust would work well to keep the soil from compacting due to rain, soak up and drain more, and help keep weeds down.

I'm in an ecosystem that tends to get heavy winter rain, and the drought all summer, so the situation of non-stop rain during growing season would be a huge deviation from normal.

I agree that walking on the garden when it's wet will increase problems down the road. If it comes to that, try finding planks of wood that you can carefully set down to walk on, to spread your weight?

Chopping and dropping the weeds at the soil surface, also sounds like a good approach, but so long as it's raining, those weeds are protecting your soil. Our winter rains can badly leach out all the nutrition we have in our soil, so weed cover is better than nothing.

It does sound as if this year, transplanting veggie starts might be your only option. One of the problems with starting seeds indoors is the transplant shock. I avoid much of that by starting my seeds in paper pots.
https://permies.com/t/225570/paper-pots
I use a deep pot because I read that deeper is better at giving plants a decent root depth from the beginning. Transplanting goes quickly because I'm not having to be careful of delicate roots - just dig a hole, drop the paper pot in, backfill gaps and make sure all the paper is covered with soil, on to the next one. Sure, I wouldn't want to plant an acre that way, but several 4'x8' beds are quite manageable.

Thanks for detailed replies! Josh, that's a very good point. We do have some drainage channels/trenches as the annual garden is gently sloped. At least there are no standing water puddles or anything like that.

As far as weeds, we were a bit behind already on August 1 when the rains started and then it just got worse from there. Vast majority of weeds are grass.

On the bright side, my husband was able to use the one dry day to make 4  patches. And then it poured again. I am going to prioritize those  for seeds that are less likely to wash away and those that can't wait till end of August.

Not a good start as this was going to be "the best fall/winter garden yet" haha.

This is a good gardening lesson to diversify some of our processes (on top of plant diversity). If we were to do it the same way every year, there will be a season without a garden. Good to remember to keep other options open (such as transplanting). I am a kind of person who loves routines but this is another life lesson in flexibility. Also, saving all of your own seeds means having extra to replant.

Some years you learn more than others. We have had this happen a few times in the 13-ish years we're here, and also a few times where it doesn't rain for 2 months. I try not to make significant permanent alterations to address either one, and go for temporaries, because next year I may be dealing with the opposite. For example right now we're in late winter with all my winter veg in the garden, and it hasn't rained in at least 30 days. I'm watering once a week and hoping for the best, the seeds I planted are looking pretty sad though.
For the wet wet times, we also put down things to walk on (also super heavy clay here) and I often start seeds in trays in sheltered areas, or on slopes I'll cover certain beds to minimize the damage from hard rain. I have some clear plastic umbrellas that go over certain plants!
Hang in there, you never quite know how the weather will be and maybe you'll have some extra growing time to make up for the late start.

Building on Tereza's point on covering the plants - that could be an option for an entire bed too. If you have some plastic sheeting you could make a temporary mini tunnel to help dry a bed out. The plastic needs to have an airgap to the soil so it can dry out; plastic piping, willow twigs, glass fibre tent poles or any flexible or shaped poles can be used as supports. Just weigh down the edges against any expected wind and make sure the rain water run off goes somewhere useful!
If you use clear plastic you could leave the cover on after seeding, just remember it doesn't rain inside the cover so the seedlings may need watering when they are tiny.
For a tunnel of only a couple of weeks any plastic will do - bubble wrap, plastic bags overlapped etc. If you want to reuse it then a good UV stable plastic would be needed.

Nancy, I would have never thought of plastic sheeting idea. I don't have a way to implement that now, but I think this won't be the last time for such dilemma.

We are now on day 19 (or 20, I am not actually sure, I just remember Aug 1 it was raining). This morning started off with a downpour. On the bright side, it has been a good mushroom season. The root cellar has not flooded - pleasantly surprised. There is a rain garden above it, seems to work well.

I am learning that short season varieties really do help with unpredictable weather (mentioned by Carol Deppe in her books). Seed hoarding is important too. I haven't been able to collect many seeds. Some are drying indoors now.

When we first came up here we had eighteen months where it rained at some point during the day or night.  Although it isn't normally that bad, and just at the moment we are enjoying a settled dry period, which is a bonus as I wait for my grains to ripen.
Raised beds are your friend! That is also why I wanted a new polytunnel when my old one died, as it enables me to garden whatever the weather.

I think the rain is not the problem, it's the combination of rain and clay soil.
I have sandy soil. If it rains a lot (and it often does, here in the Netherlands) it's ideal for sowing! Then the rain does the watering, I don't need to use the watering can.

Send some rain over here please! No significant rain (1/3” total) since May 12th, and we had a few dry weeks before that. Normally we’d get 12-15” in May (got 3”) and 6” in June got 1/3”). This was after 100” in the cold season before planting was possible. On the bright side, tree fruit that we can water off grid has been especially flavorful. The only real solution to this increasingly weird and bipolar climate seems to be biodiversity and undulating the landscape to make diverse soil moisture pockets.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:I think the rain is not the problem, it's the combination of rain and clay soil.
I have sandy soil. If it rains a lot (and it often does, here in the Netherlands) it's ideal for sowing! Then the rain does the watering, I don't need to use the watering can.

The Red River Valley of the North that is split by the border of Minnesota and North Dakota and runs all the way through Winnipeg, Canada is essentially a flat, glacial lake-bed.  So depending on where your agricultural land is, it can be more sandy or more clay.  It's a well-known area for growing potatoes, but it's also flat as a pancake which can lead to flooding problems.  We live along a small, winding river that typically floods while the ground is still frozen in the spring, but may flood as well with early summer heavy rains.   This year, moisture was about perfect....enough so that I did not need to add extra water as we approached August.  Moreover, the garden potato crop was looking the best it has in decades, truthfully!. (photo below)...No Colorado potato beetle, no blights or leaf spots, no premature wilting of any kind.  Then.....

....against all normal patterns, a torrential rain hit the area and the watershed that feeds our river in early August.  Widespread 5" rain on flat ground,....but I was hopeful that the gigantic fields of corn (maize), soybean, and wheat would soak up most of that deluge.  Alas, it  was not to be.  The river rose to flood stage (just shy of a concern to the house) and engulfed half of the garden.  Unfortunately, it was the half with the potatoes and our other favorite staple for freezer stock, our roma paste tomatoes.  As bad, with the flat terrain, the water did not recede from the garden for several days and the temperatures reached the 90s (F) by day.  The paste tomatoes were pretty devasted almost immediately.  Growth was arrested, vines died, and the fruits themselves began to rot early.  What fruits we could salvage and bring indoors had poor ripening ability...and most went to rot rather quickly.  Some of the very green ones were saved and have ripened off, but only a paltry representation of what was there.

I waited on the potato rows until a few weeks of drying could pass, then discovered the sad truth.  The anoxia from the water was too much....very large potatoes that had developed from the excellent early summer vines had turned to mush!    Only the vines furthest from the edge of the flood water were spared, but even here, only the potatoes closest to the soil surface were spared.  Very disheartening after such a good looking early promise.  Wife want's me to raise the height of the dike around the garden....I'm ready to move important crop items nearer to the house in raised beds.  Really don't want to experience this again....

John Weiland wrote:  ....against all normal patterns, a torrential rain hit the area and the watershed that feeds our river in early August.  Widespread 5" rain on flat ground,....but I was hopeful that the gigantic fields of corn (maize), soybean, and wheat would soak up most of that deluge.  Alas, it  was not to be...

A family friend told me 40 years ago now, that the changing climate wasn't just about temperature, but all about extremes. What used to be a once in 1000 year storm, would become a once in 100 years, and the once in 100 year storm, would become once every 10 years.

This has been exacerbated by a huge increase in "hardscape" - roads and driveways that used to be gravel are often paving, and houses have quadrupled in size with much more roof area. Then it has been made worse again by industrial farming which has reduced the level of organic matter in the soil, decreasing its ability to act like a sponge. I really wonder how much of the rain those fields could have soaked up 75 to 100 years ago?

I agree, John, you need to plan defensively. I would not only build raised beds, but also build many small "rain gardens" - essentially swales and potholes, to shift the landscape from "flat" to having lots of places that can collect rain in large storms. I've seen pictures of this sort of thing in both India and Africa, and it has been effective at helping to collect Monsoon rains and keep them on the land.

I'm sorry for your crop losses John.

We're back to normal here....

puddles