Depends how fluffy your soil is. In the summer last year, I planted Squash, Cucumbers, etc. right as a thunder storm came in. I read that Cucumbers are supposed to be started again if it rains (not sure why). They all germinated anyways within a couple days to a week. My soil where I planted them was dug down about a foot.

Susan, It was the common orange-flowered one called buttefly weed (Asclepias tuberosa). I have grown it several times and it doesn't like ANY of my soil. My sandy soil drains too quickly, my clay drains too slowly. It did incredibly well (raised from seed) in a raised bed in the veggie garden a couple of years ago. There it got huge, bloomed all summer long and seemed perfectly happy, but it didn't come back the following year. (It was a dry winter, and I don't water the veg garden in the winter, so maybe it got too dry?) Ironically, it grow wild along the roadside on a country road about 1/3 mile south of us, growing up and down the fenceline. Turn onto our road, though, and you'll see one or two of them a short distance from that other road, and then no more. I think the clay just gets thicker and more dense once you turn onto our road, and the farther north you go in our direction, the worse the clay gets. Sometimes, if I break new ground, I'll get volunteers of the pink-flowered milkweed that has big, tropical-looking leaves, but I haven't broken any new ground lately and haven't had it the last few years. And in the pasture we have the Antelope Horns Milkweed everywhere. Ilene, We always have tons of Johnson grass too, and I pull it out of the beds all the time, but most especially when it has just rained. I hate the stuff and it is EVERYWHERE here...in every yard, every pasture, every bar ditch, and along every fenceline. Ironically, our land that we bought and built our home on was part of the Johnson Farm for many years AND, of course, it is on Johnson Road. (I need to ask the Johnson family if they got their family name from the Johnson grass that is so abundant here.) My common white datura reseeds in both clay soil and sandy soil, but the various hybrid ones with different colored flowers and double flowers are pickier and only reseed in sandier soil. The ones in sandier soil or in clay soil improved with compost grow larger, though, than the ones in unimproved clay. Here, the common white datura is known as jimson weed and often grows wild in pastures. I think you are having a pretty good garden year considering the rainfall you have experienced. You are very resilient and are quickly finding ways to work around the weather "challenges". Imagine how much fun it will be in an "average" year with normal rainfall! I do not think you are whiney at all. This forum is a great place to talk through ALL the challenges and successes, all the good times and bad, all the ups and the downs of gardening in Oklahoma. I honestly think that Oklahoma is one of the toughest places to garden because our weather changes non-stop. Where else in the USA can you go from ice to snow to rain to sleet to hail to tornadoes to drought to wildfire, etc......and all in one year or even in one month (sometimes it seems like it is all in one week!). I have seen rains so heavy that the roads flooded, and then the dry, dormant grasses went up in a blaze of wildfire a day or two later, and firefighters trying to fight the wildfires found their trucks stuck in the muds from the heavy rains. Living here is a challenge, and gardening is even more so. NO ONE understands it better than those of us who live here and garden here. I agree that the people on this forum rock! I have never seen a more agreeable, considerate, kind, giving and helpful group of people. On many forums you see a lot of "discussions" that turn into heated debates, and you see a lot of out-of-control egos that clash. We don't have that here, and I am so proud of our entire group of individuals on this forum. I think we can and do disagree with one another, but we are not disagreeable in the manner in which we do so. Sharon, I agree with you that we all are blessed to have our homes and gardens, even when they are giving us fits. I think we're blessed to have each other too. Susan, I had a lot of butterflies earlier in the season, but they have been fairly sparse lately. Maybe it is the wind....or lots of predators/diseases because we had a huge upsurge in population last year and that is always followed by predators/diseases and then a smaller population. (Just like the corresponding up and down population cycles of rabbits/coyotes.) This week I am beginning to see more, especially black swallowtails. Y'all our lovely day lasted until noon, and then the heat and humidity combined to make it miserable, along with the wicked mosquitoes. I've been inside for a couple of hours but hope to get back out in the yard after dinner. Dawn

I've had this happen, and it was bacterial wilt, which was almost certainly caused by overly wet soil (we had several drenching rains, and I had a thick layer of mulch on top that kept it from drying out). Now, plants won't recover from that. They're goners. So if the plants perk back up, then it isn't BW. But BW is a frequent result of waterlogged soil. I too am very skeptical about hydrogen peroxide as a quick-fix oxygenator. Hydrogen peroxide is a strong oxidizer, and I would think that it would probably harm roots more than helping them. Water itself has quite a lot of dissolved atmospheric oxygen in it, so a bed that is drenched with rainwater will sure not be short of oxygen. In fact, as water percolates down in the soil, it drags some air with it.

What would happen to them on the porch? Animals or blown away? How can you prevent that from happening? Is it a covered porch? Can you set up a wind shield and rain protection like a tarp if that is the issue? Otherwise it is back inside with some sort of rigged up light for them. Depending on the # a cardboard box lined with foil and some sort of lamp will work for a short period. Another alternative is to plant them and then put a milk jug or liter pop bottle with the bottom cut out over them for protection. For future reference, whenever possible in the spring it is always a good idea to have a pre-rigged up protected area like a low tunnel or such for issues just like this. You made not need it but if you do it comes in very handy. Dave