I get pooped out too easily when it gets hot and the other day I did not want to plant anything because the wind was so strong. I figured things would go into transplant shock.

I have a potting table set up in the back of our garage (thank heavens for an oversized garage). I figured I would finish planting seedling plants if it wasn't raining too hard but otherwise:

Mix up homemade fertilizer/soil mix for tomatoes.

Start more vegetable seedlings for later.

Make a to do list for the garden because I can't do y until I do x such as I can't plant tomatoes until I make the planting mix. Maybe set up some reminder dates because I never succession plant at the right times.

Work in my high tunnel although there's a big tear in one section of the roof. It should be fine until I can decide about getting new greenhouse plastic.

I have seeds to plant in the garden: more sugar snaps, first beans.

Seed potatoes are still in bags, I can put them in the small wood crates I save from buying clementines. I don't even know if they've sprouted yet.

Daydream about a perfect garden.

Be happy that I don’t have to water.

Rainy days are the clean up the mess in the garage days and/or get those little annoying house projects done.

Working in a rainy/wet garden is a good way to cause problems. Unless there's some priority that absolutely needs done, it's best to let it be and let rain do its thing. If you're making hay while the sun is shining, that means you're usually letting indoor things slip by the wayside. Rain days are the perfect opportunity to rest the body and get caught up on the other things. Or like myself, having to deal with the flooded basement issue from lots of rain after a long dry spell, and the repaved street that rose the level of the asphalt above your sloped driveway, causing everyone's runoff to be channeled right down to your basement door!

I even asked them to keep the level of the new road below my raised driveway! Maybe they thought they were doing me a favor? I'll be getting out there in a while and using a mattock to lower it myself! Oh, well, not like I have a ton of other things I needed to do... he said, lamenting - over his quickly cooling coffee - the chores that will need to be put off once again due to someone's incompetence. His blood pressure rising as he just thinks about it, and the next wave of rain to hit later this afternoon.

in the garden when it rains? Absolutely nothing. Rainy days are for doing all the other things I enjoy.

Dave

Rainy days are for cleaning the inside of the house since it gets ignored when I am outside gardening.

I mentioned this question to my dear wife VgQn and she said that if the timing is right she shells the accumulating peas or butter beans, blanches and freezes whatever is pilling up, makes pickles, pickled beets, cans jams, & tomato sauce. And I forgot that during rainy periods I do occasionally whip up a 5 gallon batch of chili for long term eating or partying.........and then again there is that list of house projects, "the list", ugh.

I wonder how many in this forum also take care of their landscape? The lawn of course, but shrub borders, perennial beds? We take care of all of that too, so I’ve gotten into the mind set that a cloudy day, if the soil is not wet and unworkable, is a great time for transplanting, moving shrubs etc. I seem to end up doing that just about every season.

Also, there is a lot that has to get done in the spring. I want to have as much done as I can before the weather gets hot. But the weather was cold and snowy so late this spring, that we got a late start, so it’s felt like catch up all spring and I’m still not done. I hope in the next two weeks to have everything done and have only maintenance left to do while it is hot.

Once that is the case, then, yes, house projects, cooking chili for the freezer, cleaning the garage, and as VGKG said - ‘ugh, the list’. [g]. But, maybe some beach days in there too.

It was cloudy all day and colder as the day went on. Just started sprinkling out and it’s getting down into the 40s tonight. Raw out there. More of the same tomorrow, but 3 days almost 90 degrees next week, starting Tuesday. The weather has been like a roller coaster all spring.

I think since this is the vegetable forum people thought about staying out of the beans, probably those who live where they already have beans growing instead of those like us in the northern clime. I used to know someone who did all her perennial splitting and transplanting as soon as the ground was workable which is a lot smarter than right now when those fancy day lilies are going to stay right where they are because they are already too big for easy splitting. I still have dead stems in the shady garden between two buildings. It's an easy place to forget.

And since napping after lunch took place yesterday, I'm still behind on my list of getting plants into the ground and new seeds planted since the ground might finally be warm enough for beans and tomorrow the heat returns.

I agree, defrost - I was forgetting that my need to get into the garden in the rain, is not into the vegetable garden. And I have raised beds as well, which I think makes it different. I work with the concept that walking on wet soil compacts it anyway, so I try not to do that, but I do have a lot of pathways and stepping stones that allow me access even on a day when it's raining lightly. I also don't like to touch foliage when it's wet. But I seem to get a lot of weather that is damp and cloudy but not exactly wet.

I always like to get out as soon as the ground is workable to divide perennials and transplant, but - at least half of my springs, it doesn't work out that way.

I ended up just transplanting all my houseplants yesterday, which were overdue, and getting some cleaning done around the house yesterday - and got a nap too. [g]. My list has a lot on it still. We usually go to a few plant sales in May and I now have a lot of pots to get in the ground.

The vegetable garden is just showing bean seeds sprouting. Peas are barely growing much, no flowers yet. I just put tomatoes and peppers, summer squash and cuke transplants in the ground last week and they're just sitting there doing nothing. Three days in the 80s this week, should change that. Lettuce transplants are slow growing. I had this issue last season, a lot of cloudy weather early that slowed down growth.

The closest thing I have to perennial beds are strawberries and blueberries - and perhaps the rose bushes. I did have to harvest strawberries while it was wet, and while the area around the blueberries needs attention, and the first berries are blueing-up, they aren't quite ripe yet. So, nope no perennial bed stuff. No grass to mow, so no landscape stuff either. I do have some brush that needs clearing, but that's a bad job made worse when the leaves are wet.

I did take the opportunity yesterday, while the ground was wet, to pull a few grass clumps that grew fast in a spot that I'm going to redo with a terrace. Definitely can't pull them when the ground is dry, but all except one came up. I'll be digging it out soon anyway, but it needed to be done. Other than that, and dealing with the issues causing the flooding, no garden work.

RGreen - You have my sympathy on the flooding. We had a basement that flooded when it rained hard when I was growing up and it was miserable. And. a lot of work to deal with it. I hope you are able to fix it so it won't happen again.

You have blueberry bushes - how do you cover them from the birds?

I haven't covered them from birds. So far, the birds haven't been interested. Perhaps because the bushes are right off the front porch? Or maybe because they are only in their 4th year and aren't very large yet? In any case... thus far, no bird problems. Although... 2 days ago, a cluster of unripe berries had been torn off, but it was the morning after a serious storm, so I chalked it up to winds and rain. We'll see. If I have a problem, I'll probably just drape some old insect barrier over them during the harvest period. So far, I only have 3 bushes, quite manageable.

I have 4 bushes in their 3rd year and the birds stripped them last year. And I tried using that netting and it's such a pain to work with, I'm thinking of doing something else.

Our 3 BB bushes are 14 YO now and birds do go after them so I suspend a plastic owl over them and place scary looking stuffed animals in the bushes to keep them at bay. Rubber snakes work too as well as old CDs on strings that act as reflecting mirrors (yeah, the bushes look silly). Nets work but these bushes are too big to cover completely now and birds will get up under them.

VgKg - Wow - great ideas. Who would have thought those would work? [g]. The thought of having to struggle with the netting every year is intimidating. I had a bear of a time trying to cover just one small bush adequately. Everything gets tangled into it and it tangles up with itself. I had a friend who built a very large wooden structure with netting attached for full size bushes, but to me, that's a lot of work and expense and certainly changes the look of the landscape. I'll try those ideas and see if that helps. Thanks.

I tend to use rainy days for cooking. For example, I like to make big batches of bread on rainy days so I don't have to worry about it on the nice days. I also use it for cleaning up if needed, other hobbies indoors, etc.