I think this storm has taught me what a little bit of compost can do for the heavy clay soil. If we had gotten 4.5" of rain in 24 hours last year, we'd have standing water over most of our backyard. I looked out there this morning, and the composted areas of the yard have no puddles at all. The non-composted parts are still inundated. It's kind of amazing.

Heather, It is amazing, and over the years as the soil gets better and better and better, so does the drainage. We have heavy red clay where puddles can remain standing for up to a month after a heavy rainfall. You cannot plant anything in that clay except plants adapted to poorly draining areas.
In the veggie garden, flower beds and shrub beds, depending on how well-amended they are, I can plant almost anything, especially in the veggie beds.

The amending never ends, though, since heat eats compost. That's where some inexperienced gardeners err. They improve the soil once and think that's it. If they don't add more compost, in a couple of years in our climate, the beds revert back to whatever they were like before they were amended. That doesn't mean we have to rototill compost into established shrub or perennial beds, because simply by adding mulch, the rainfall, insect action, digging or weeding, etc. helps work that mulch down into the soil over the years.

You can see the "top down" approach in our woodland, which is probably at least 70 years old. The top 6 to 8 to 10" of soil is fluffy, loamy, humusy, compost-rich soil that is just divine. Underneath that is crappy red clay. The soil has literally built itself over the years as leaves, twigs, tree limbs, etc. have fallen to the woodland floor and decomposed.

Since we moved here in 1999, we've had two single-day rainfalls that were incredible. Both occurred in late April. One was 9.25" in one 24-hour period and the other was 12.89" in a 24-hour period. Logic would tell you that my entire garden died. It didn't. I no longer remember if I lost a lot to the 9.25" storm, but I don't think I did. A few plants did die after the 12.89" storm, but we're talking maybe 6 tomato plants total out of well over 100. They likely wouldn't have died but we had several more inches of rain over the next six weeks and the soil just couldn't dry up. I am still amazed to this day that over a foot of rain fell in one day and my garden survived it.

Never underestimate the power of compost (and raised beds help too).

Dawn

I haven't had a chance to check on my tomatoes yet, but my fruit bed sits directly under the edge of the roof and catches all the water running off of it (we've never installed gutters). It regularly gets completely flooded, and the strawberries, raspberries, and blueberry don't seem to mind in the least.

I'm thinking our soil probably has a lot more sand than yours, Dawn, because the longest I've ever seen puddles last after a rain is maybe a day or two (and that's only for the big events like we had in 2007). It baffles me how the soil six inches down can be like concrete when I'm trying to dig a hole when it's dry, but if you pour water into the hole it goes through almost immediately. It's the strangest stuff ever.

So, I guess despite how awful the soil is for growing things, it does have that "well-drained" quality going for it. It just needs a lot more organic matter and nutrients. I bet I could get a decent garden going without having to build raised beds as long as I keep adding mulch and compost to it over the years to loosen it up.

The 24-hour Mesonet map is showing a local bullseye of 6"+ over our house. I wish Mother Nature would spread it out over the summer instead of giving it to us all at once!

Dawn,
Tks for asking. We were on the verge of goin to the cellar about dark thirty, but it started to lessen about that time, and we did not have any bad weather. There was a mezzo cyc. between Anadarko and Gracemont to the north, and one southwest of here on other side of Apache, that we were watching. When they lessened we were happy and said a prayer of thanksgiving.
Did get some welcome rain (3.45) inches to be exact. I dont have a problem here with deep water as we live almost on top of a large hill and get Real drainage real quick. I also use raised rows for my ordinary garden veggies, but the tomatoes are not in raised rows. They never suffer though. All is well here. My Betty and I had put buckets, trash cans etc, you know the routine, with the fear of hail. Did not get enough hail to be a problem though, just a few hailballs every once in a while. Hope you are OK as I see the reds and yellows on the radar in your part of the country. I am hoping that the dry line dont develope today again as that will keep me from having to cover the plants again. My tomatoes have gotten to the size that buckets will no longer cover some of them, and I have devised a way that I think is real good. It is using some old throwaway refrigerator shelves hung beside the plant to shed the hail. I guess you'd just have to see it. Anyway ,
Best of luck to you all,
Bill