Weekend gardening outlook: saturated soil, more rain at times

SEATTLE - We've been soakingly wet this morning-- and at times this weekend too. This kind of a soggy forecast typically means our temperatures will actually be on the mild side. We'll see days start out around 40 instead of the 30s and afternoons, when we're lucky, will get to 50. There's good news in that despite the soggy weather-- we'll still see some dry periods if you want to get some work done in the yard and garden. 

Saturday morning and the first part of Sunday look like they'll be dry enough to do some raking and maybe work on that garden bed cloche cover you've been putting off. In general with these really wet periods, it's best to not work the really saturated soil too much. So, I'd actually avoid digging around planting bulbs or sowing cover crops like fava beans. 

This part of our wet season is actually good time for garden journaling. It's something I'm terrible about but I'm trying to get better at. It can be as simple as an accounting of what worked this season and what didn't work so well. More complicated journaling can involve maps of where you put plants for crop rotation / soil depletion purposes. But, on these grilled cheese / tomato soup kind of afternoons it's nice to think forward to spring about what to plant, where it's best to plant it, and a look at plant hardiness so you know when you can start again late winter / next spring. -Tim Joyce