Getting things in the ground in spite of the rain?

Anyone having fun with the much-needed rain?

I received some mail order plants on Wednesday. I promptly took them out and set them in their pots in the yard that day, and that evening managed, with the "help" of the two-year-old to get one of them in the ground Wed. Then the rains came. On Friday, I snuck out there and got another one in the somewhat moist ground in between showers. Then yesterday the rain really came. One of the plants that's supposed to be moist is surely moist now, and I was even afraid it would get blasted and carried away. I've got three still sitting in drenched pots, and ground that is too swampy to walk on, much less plant anything in.

Anyone have any tricks or tips in such cases? Am I better off just leaving them in the pots until the ground is nicer?

Carl

[See attached swampiness in the lawn this morning. Please, ignore weeds...this is my attempt at...errr...natural lawncare...yeah]

LOL Carl! We maintain our yard "naturally" as well!

I don't think there's a trick other than letting the ground dry out. Make sure your plants that are waiting to be transplanted don't dry out in their pots.

I like to transplant on cloudy or rainy afternoons. That way they have a chance to sit in their new home without the hot sun beating down on them. Only thing is when you have a afternoon shower ..and then the sun comes out it can be worse on them.

I put Bayer on all of my roses this morning, hope it wasn't too wet. I skipped the watering after treating part. I have lots of black spot already because of all of the rain, so I was afraid not to do it.

Well, it's still overcast, but the standing water is starting to disappear (...starting). Now I just have to figure out if I can actually dig in this. Maybe when the two-year-old gets her nap I can check things out.

Be careful when you transplant that you don't totally destroy the root system. Sometimes the dirt in those little pots can be so wet that it just falls apart when you pull it out of the pot.

Our 20 year old french drain isn't draining - guess that's something that needs to be done when it dries up

Maybe it's draining, just too much water??

well, it's draining, but very, very slowly. We really shouldn't have a path there, but since we wanted it, we put a french drain to drain water from right to left. Shouldn't take as long as it's taking, though, so I'm assuming it's stopped up or collapsed. It runs all the way across the yard, and then takes a right turn all the way to the creek.