Help! My Garden is Too Wet to Plant

Inside: If your spring is the new rainy season and you can’t till the soil, not to worry. Here are three methods when your garden is too wet to plant.

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A bag of soil as a container when your garden is too wet to plant. for planting. — A bag of garden soil acts as a container for this pepper plant.

The Problem

It’s been a wet start to the year, and it’s affected a lot of folks trying to get their gardens in. Mom said a couple came into the store the other day and bought an entire flat of tomatoes. They told her they couldn’t get into the garden until just then. I understand the delay. I grew up thinking the only way to garden was to work up the soil every spring, turn it over with a tiller. When you’re raised in a farm family, tractor and plow is what you know, after all. I also remember my early years of marriage when I tried to garden, asking my very busy dairy farmer dad to plow my plots–and waiting in frustration until he could get around to it. I didn’t have the money for a tiller, nor did I want to learn how to use one, anyway. Since those early years as a newbie gardener, I’ve found different ways to get around tilling the soil. If your garden is too wet to plant and you’re stuck in a till-the-ground mindset, the following methods will give you options.

Plant in a Bale

Hay bale gardening, watermelon. — I’m quickly becoming a fan of hay bale gardening!

I decided to try my hand at hay bale gardening two years ago. Most people use straw, but I had some old seasoned hay bales that worked perfectly. Mom had been using this method for a few years with some success, so I knew the basics.

If unseasoned, wet the bales really, really, really well before attempting to transplant anything. We’re talking several days of watering. And by all means, first stick your hand down inside of the bale before planting. If it is extremely hot, it’s not ready yet. Turn the sprinkler on the hay (or straw) to prepare it some more. The best solution is to set up your bales on edge (non-twine side up) in the fall. No changing your mind about moving them once they’ve been through the rains and snows of fall and winter, as they will become quite heavy! By spring those square beauties are ready for your plants. If planting seeds, gardeners suggest layering about four inches of top soil on the top of the bale.

For my first attempt, I chose to transplant peppers into the bale. Heavy rainfall in previous years had my peppers standing in muddy soil–which they do not like. My thinking was that if the summer turned out rainy, they’d be fine tucked away in the hay. If it was hot and dry, I’d need to be watering them more often.

Since then I’ve also grown watermelon and pumpkins in a bale. It’s a great way to plant when you haven’t got the time or equipment or perfect weather conditions for a traditional garden plot.

Containerize With What You’ve Got

When it's too wet too plant, use a bag of soil for a container. — Yes, a pepper in a bag of soil!

While I’ve pined for those nice planter boxes, particularly the ones that have a system for delivering water right down to the roots, you don’t have to spend a bundle on containers for growing. I’ve used old boots, a wooden ice cream maker, a cheap soup pot, a mineral block tub for livestock, and recycled plastic pots which other plants came in–to name a few. And as the picture shows, you can get even more creative–and cheap–by simply planting right in the garden soil bag! Yes, a bag of soil! Years ago Mother Earth News ran an article about planting directly in flat bags of soil, and I actually did a small plot with this method. It’s a great idea for those too-wet-to-get-into garden plots.

My next experiment will be planting in cardboard boxes. I’ll keep you posted on developments.

Dig a Hole

One year, upon looking at my garden that had turned back into lawn, I went outside and dug holes in the grass, planted my tomatoes, spaced evenly, and laid down newspaper and mulch around them to kill the grass. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. This was in the days before Internet and Pinterest, so I was simply acting on an idea that I thought would probably not work anyway. Imagine my surprise when it actually did!

If you choose this method, I recommend digging bigger holes than you need and mixing in compost or bagged garden soil with added fertilizer from your local garden center to fill in the hole around your transplants. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

Take a Risk and Try Something New

One of the pure joys of being a gardener is thinking outside the box–er, container, that is–and trying something new. Weather conditions change year to year, so it’s good to have alternative ways for raising crops and growing flowers. If your garden is too wet to plant–or even if it isn’t–why not take a risk with one of these methods. Even on a small scale, you’ll reap a harvest of veggies–and gardening savvy!