"Zootal" wrote in message
...

I missed the original post so am not sure whether this suggestion is
useful
or not, however. It has been suggested in stuff I have read that planting
a
cover crop in late winter/early spring will help dry out water logged
soil
prior to spring sowing. The cover crop will soak up some of the rain and
dry
the soil quicker. Once the weather improves the cover crop can be killed
off
and mulched across the gardens or removed and composted ready to be put
back
as a nutrients later in the growing season. Obviously kill the crop off
before it sets seed. Grass is a very simple suggestion or maybe clover
which
will also help fix nitrogen. The cover crops can also help harvest
existing
nutrients and 'store' them until needed thereby saving them being lost
through leaching.

rob



Unfortunately, I had a real nice cover crop of clover - the miserable
stuff that took over my garden last year. And grass. And leftover garden.
I tilled all of it under, and it will sit for the next couple months until
the weather warms up. My original post was how to plant spring stuff when
it rains every day, day after day, week after month. Non-stop rain from
Jan 1 to end of May. Last year I didn't plant much spring stuff because it
never stopped raining. This year we had a 3 week dry spell, and I was able
to turn everything over and get some onions, potatoes, garlic, and peas in
the ground, and I'm trying to move my strawberries while I can. Now it's
mud again, but it's cleared and plowed


The best you can hope for is to NOT COMPRESS IT by kneeling or walking
directly on it. Buy a 1x10 or 1x12 board, whatever length is convenient to
handle. Lay that on the area where you need to work. Kneel on that, not
right on the soil. Obviously, it's a hard surface, so you'll need to have
kneepads or some other thing to make you comfortable.