Raindrops keep falling on my garden

Soaked soil from endless rains getting you down? Me too. It was clear today, but tomorrow, here we go again! If you are ready to plant and the rain keeps falling, try tarping the bed you hope to plant next. Use one of those blue tarps people put on leaky roofs. Put a bucket or a large pot upside down in the middle of the bed, put the tarp over it, and then weight the edges with stones or bricks. Remove the tarp on sunny days, to allow for drying. Put it back on when rains threaten. This trick can speed drying of a small area considerably.

Soil is dry enough to dig or sow seeds when a handful squeezed together breaks up easily if you prod it with a finger. If your finger just makes a dent in a ball of sticky soil, it is too wet to work.

Soil that is sandy can be worked when it is wetter, since it still falls apart easily, but clay has to be fairly dry or you will cause damage to its tilth. Adding organic matter (compost or aged manure, for example) allows clay soils to be worked when they are holding more water.