Planting in the rain?

[Graham K]

It's raining it's pouring the old man has had enough and gone down the pub.

Again a typical British (lack of) summer and nothing but rain and a spring that couldn't make it's mind up, at the moment I must be at least six weeks behind in my planting and if I don't get the last of the veggies in soon I won't have anything growing at all.

So I have a choice plant in the rain or don't plant at all, so I guess I'm going to get wet!

Has anyone had any success with planting into what is now, wet sticky mud, or are there any do's and don'ts I should be aware of apart from "don't plant in the rain"? I'm probably running out of time to get stuff in the ground but I can't sit around in the hope that the summer of 76 will return any time soon.

Any advice most welcome.

Thanks, Graham.

[alldigging]

Probably the best advice is to not do it.
Get bigger pots if things need repotting...

If you really must then - get a plank to stand on to spread your weight so you don't turn ground to mush around your boots. Got any straw? You could throw some of that on and stand on that.

[SarzWix]

Take a plug of soil out, chuck a couple of handfuls of: compost, or sand, or pea gravel, or leaf mould into the hole, half-heartedly mix it into the surrounding mud, shove plant into resultant mixture, pray.

[SarzWix]

In all seriousness, the worst thing for the plant will be if the soil holds so much moisture that air can't get to the roots, so anything you can mix into the planting hole to aid drainage will help a lot

[Farmer_Gyles]

i spent sunday planting out and potting on all the brassicas .... it was a rare "dry" day so had to take a chance and get it done while i could ...
yesterday i was sowing carrots in the rain .... notta lotta choice .....

[dominic10]

I planted out some mange tout in the rain a while ago - the weather caught up with me. 50% were planted before rain and 50% after (with me getting soaking wet). Just lucky that they are growing away nicely now. We've had solid rain for 3 days now and I have more to plant out. What kind of soil do you have GK ? My soil is very free draining so if I have a window later I shall be down planting more out. I don't envy people with puddles after all the rain we have been having.

[pauco]

Why not join him down the pub Then make plans for when the rain stops

paul.