The title says it best - both circumstances are bad. So given the "lesser of two evils", to me it has to be too dry. There are so many bad things related to gardening in too wet conditions based on when this occurs: How do you prep? How do you seed? How do you do maintenance? How do you harvest? Everything is a hassle, everything is a mess. Not to mention diseases, rampant weed germination, soil compaction, root rot, rotting root vegetables, poor harvests, poor keeping qualities of produce, etc. A too wet situation has no positives whatsoever that I can see, related to home gardening. Gardening in too dry: I take "too dry" to be different from "drought". If the situation is severe, long term drought than what is the point in even worrying about a garden - it will be toast no matter what you do. The problem is that too dry usually goes hand in hand with too hot - the double whammy that stresses and kills. And pests and diseases can easily damage and kill stress-weakened plants as well. But there are positives such as fewer weeds germinating, root veggies come out clean, plus some veggies thrive in the heat (my peppers LOVE it). Mulching, target watering, and strategic use of removable shade can still get a person a very good harvest under too dry conditions. My question is: When will cisterns come back into wide use? Around here every old house had a cistern in the basement to collect rainwater for household use. None are used anymore, and new houses obviously are not built with them. I collect rainwater in cisterns for gardening use because it is better water for plants than well water, I am not stressing the well supply, and I can use it to get over the dry spell "humps". I have around a 6-8 week supply. If I use up all my rainwater then I consider my situation to be in a drought and all bets are off - I may start using well water or I may just decide to pack it in for the season. Usually I will cut back and just focus on the critical stuff being grown mainly for seed stock. My nightmare is: Having to someday rely on home gardening as a primary food source and having either of these two evils occur. Food for thought, so to speak. Have a good day.

Dave -- Thank you for your suggestions! I will definitely try to prop the dome a little and keep a fan going nearby. Oilpainter -- I acknowledge that damping-off may have played a role in killing the seedlings, but I did notice that they were fine when the soil was moist ... and in the morning, when the cell had tried out too much on top, they had fallen over (and not from the stem base -- it was more like an overall drooping). I've also heard a bit about this cinnamon trick -- I'll have to give it a try! Sleepy33 -- Thanks also for your advice. I may need to pull the lights away from the not-yet-germinated seeds, especially the poor surface-sown ones! Keriann -- You were actually right! I have both seedlings and not-yet-germinated seeds going right now. Swamp milkweed, purple prairie clover, sweet indian plantain, scabiosa, some violets, dill, and prairie coreopsis have sprouted. Milkweed is doing the best right now, just about to show first set of true leaves! I'm most worried about the violets, which are sprouting slowly and sporadically. They're so small, I'm afraid of them being consumed by mold. Same with snapdragon and joe pye weed seeds, which are extremely tiny and surface-sown. As for fungus: So far I've mostly seen a white haze of mold on my soil. Very subtle-looking. But strangely, I've also noticed many chunks of perlite exhibiting a coating of yellowish to orange-ish mold! What in the world!? I took tweezers and removed as much of the perlite from the soil surface as possible. I've also just started trying to overnight my seedling/seeded flats in my bedroom with a fan on to help keep the mold down. And sadly, I have no other place to set up my lights. :(

Your page does not indicate what area you compost in, so I'm not sure about your climate. If you are in a very hot, dry and windy area; wrapping the outside of your bin in three layers of burlap cloth or one layer of landscape fabric might be a good idea. I have seven mesh bins in various stages, so usually there is at least one on the hot side. I put problematic ingredients like fish parts, veggie and fruit wastes, freshwater seaweed-type plants; only in the core (center) of a pile which is 130F to 165F in the center. Fish parts will dissolve in ten days or less. I try to start out with a hot pile by making a 4' diameter pile 24" or 18" high from shredded leaves and fresh grass/coffee grounds. That gets off to a nice start and the problematic ingredients can be put in the center in as little as three days later. Too much moisture in the middle might be a problem from the start. It may need to be turned.

It might be that your new guinnea mpatiens need a little more sun. They like the morning and evening sun but not a hot sun like at midday. Combine the lack of sun with the cold and wet and you could have root rot. Now this is a worst case scenario so don't dispair yet. If that's what it is there is no hope for the plant. In case it is isolate the plant because it can spread. In any case I'd give it more sun and see what happens. It may be that is all that's required