You appear to be growing on a much larger scale than I do, but I definitely feel your pain. I used to grow veggies right in the ground and without fail the garden would be a mud patch in spring well past the starting date for cool season crops.

I switched to soil-less raised beds and am so happy I did as I can now plant weeks before the recommended date if temperatures allow.

On your scale I don't know that raised beds are going to be practical though.

In your case you might want to do the soil working in the fall and make raised portions so you can plant in them earlier in the spring.

April showers might bring may flowers, but they sure do make it difficult to plant the veggie garden! ;-)

I had a rain issue last year...usually I am praying for rain but it rained for the proverbial 40 days and 40 nights. My tomatoes were mushy and tasted terrible...Most of my garden i grow in boxes and they drain well but 4o days of rain is just too freaking much rain....I feel for ya...If I were you and you think it's going to be a regular occurance leave those trenches.

I definitely understand your problem. I've been wrestling with it myself. I didn't wait for the soil to be fully dry. I went ahead and tilled when the soil was too wet knowing that I would end up with more clods than I hoped for. The garden is not perfect but it's better than if I waited for another day (when it rained). I decided that I'd do my of my tilling in the fall and only till in the spring if I could without creating clods. Here's a pic...
{{gwi:41656}}

not all teh plants i started are for me, i usually plant about 30 toms and 15 or so melons, the rest i give away to family/friends. i can start them from seeds much cheaper than i cna buy plants at the store, and i just cannot help but put a seed in every hole in the plat!

it is just now getting dry enough to work the dirt agian, and now they call for severe storms tomorrow. i hope i can get out there right after work today, i may have just enough time to get a few rows up inthe drier patch. they did at least change the rain foreast to tomorrow evening/night fromtoday, but we do have a chance of rain today as well.

the garden is roughly 100x100, but the rows are spaced 5+ ft apart so i can work them on the tractor. half the garden is no rows, just a few mounds and open area for the melons to run and spread.

the previous owner of our house had 2 acres setup for his garden, hey he was retired and nothing else to do so he raised and sold enough veggies to pay his property taxes and electric bill for the well. he put in high volume water lines out to the garden, and i jsut cannot help but plant a large area since it is all setup for it already. i say every year in the fall that NEXT year i will cut back to just a few plants close to the house. and every spring i go bigger!

Here in WA, all we've had is cold and rain, cold and snow, cold and hail, and cold! A few years ago, we had snow TWO DAYS before the last frost date! And this isn't the mountains --- I'm 150 feet above sea level. 8-(

I've seed a few raised beds that were mostly prepared last fall, but haven't done a thing with the ground, and the weeds are a-growin'!

Just be aware that when you plow wet ground, you're going to lose quite a bit of nitrogen. You may want to be prepared to add some more.

Sue

I used to garden in a swampy area where my landlord said nothing would grow. I bought a trenching shovel and dug a trench around the entire patch, throwing the muddy soil back up on the garden area and leading the trench away from the garden at the low end. Got it dry enough so I could plant the first week in April.
My current garden is high and dry - soil just right for planting in spite of the torrential rains we've had. Got the sugar snaps in this morning.

I too live in Washington, but worked three of my garden beds back in February when we had that warm/dry spell. I wish I did a little bit more because I just finishing filling up the beds I have prepared. Hopefully the weekend weather forecast is correct and we get more warm and dry.

Several years ago I was testing some emergency growing kits to be used in places that were devestated by flooding or other natural disasters. To make a growing area large enough to be worth while, I used fence posts set up in lines with a spacing of about 6 foot. Canvas like material was suspended several feet above the ground between the posts with the ends laced up with wire. PVC pipe was used to brace the troughs upen like hammocks. Holes were poked beneath the fabric troughs to promote good drainage while retaining the soil. Wires were run along the posts higher up to stabalize the plants when they grew higher. The results were good. My neighbors thought I was nuts, but they didn't know that the project was to test emergency growing kits to be sent into areas of great devestation. Alas, the idea worked fine, but no groupe with enough money was interested in making up the kits. Perhaps you might give it a try and make it work for you. Good Luck, chuck

I feel your pain with all those seedlings ready to go! After the worst drought in 100 years, we have had more rain in Mar than all of last year.

Here's the wierd thing, our ground is so dry that there are still no puddles!

Don't know your type of soil, but normally, with our clay soil that much rain in a tilled garden becomes a Colloid. For those who forgot their chemistry--quicksand!

yep, ours is clay as well. on average there is 12" of good sandy loam abov ethe clay level, but some areas it ain't much topsoil there. when you walk on it, you sink.

I'll trade ya....we have 0" of topsoil over our hard red clay!!!! :)

david&kasie all is not lost yet, we had an inch of wet snow on fri , that looked great on the row cover material over the cabbage, it was flat but soon as the snow melted they stood back up, had visions of starting planting spuds 2 wks ago, just as well i have not been able to as the soil has not been warming.
Well if gardening was easy everyone would be doing it....maybe u will be blessed with a great fall, thats what i am hopin for here, it has been a game of taking advantage of little windows between the storms for us also. as to all your land set up for growing, is there any market for some squash and pumpkin in your area, they are quite low work and can be grown over all kinds of weed suppressing covers and or mulch. maybe road side sales, or u pick, ofcourse they also are great for the food banks and soup kitchens. hope spring comes for you soon

i tfinally stayed dry long enough to get my beans inthe ground. toms and melons will be ready in a few days. it has rained only 1 time since planting 8 days ago, but i water regularly anyway so that ain't hurting.

we usually go from too much rain to not enough by late May. last year we went over 100 days with no measurable rain. oddly enough though, July was our wettest on record!