The rains this am (Saturday) has been heavier than the earlier part of the week. This is the first day I've been concerned w/flooding. I'm sorry you're having problems. The bareroot plants would have me really bummed. Can you go out & plant them anyway? I've done a lot of my spring planting in the rain.

I know this has been a rainy week, but we usually get this kind of weather in spring. It's just a little late this year. I think it rained for an entire month last year. I do recall that my plants were better than ever by summer. The early excessive rain was great for most of the plants. Our royal red maple never got too red though because of the lack of sunlight in the early season. The garden center had a lot of stock to put on sale because not many people were buying/planting last spring because of the weather. I don't think this year will be as bad as last. Hang in there. It probably will dry up soon.

Yep, it's normal to have this rain like this. I believe the line "April showers bring May flowers" was penned by a New Englander. The rain is a little late this year.
I've had bare root plants arrive during these kind of monsoons. If the forecast doesn't show clearing within a day or so I'll plant my new things all together in a bucket or big pot of potting mix and let them set on the porch.
One year I had a shipment of plants arrive with a foot of snow left on the ground! I planted everything in pots and kept rotating them between lamplight and whatever bright windows I could find. The poor things then had to go in and out of the house every night and day for weeks after the thawing started. They were huge by the time I got to plant them. It was some years ago, but I think most of them made it ok.

I am a new member and also new (last Nov) to Maine and have been reading all of the old posts. Our large side yard is very wet which was not evident in August when we first viewed it. Three Autumn Sunset Red Maples were delivered this week, the purpose is to eventually screen view of neighbors. Do I dare plant them in saturated conditions?

LL,

"Our large side yard is very wet..."

It would still be just as wet even if your red maples were already planted. If they are balled and burlapped, I would excavate holes now and plant them in the rain. If they are bare rooted, you could still dig the holes and put them in but possibly wait a few days for less wet conditions to fill in around the roots. If you have standing water, you might want to consider digging some drainage ditches now while you can assess their effectiveness. This would also be a good time to look for potential mosquito breeding areas.

Our local Manchester (just west of Augusta) Yahoo forecast shows that tomorrow, Mother's Day, should be a temporary letup. However, Weather Central gives us a 50% chance of rain tomorrow. Different sources have slightly different forecasts for us tomorrow. I would suggest deciding on locations for the trees today and digging the holes. Then place the trees and backfill when you get a temporary letup in the rain. Or, you could just "mud them in" now.

MM

"They" say it's going to be fair Thursday,so take heart.Our dandilions are flourishing and so are some other awful weeds.It's too wet and windy to try to get rid of those yet.As Scarlet said "tomorrow is another day".Josie

Our cellar started flooding much worse than ever last night. The contractor had formed up the area for the patio directly off the back of the house. We were just waiting for the concrete to be poured. By 8pm last night, the patio area had filled up with water like a pond and water was streaming through our cellar. My husband got sump pump #2 hooked up in the patio/pond to move the water away from the house, that helped.

I know we usually do have excessively rainy periods each spring, but I am obsessing over it more than usual because of the construction going on at my house--everything's delayed and my house is more vulnerable to flooding due to the bare areas around it.

Woke up this a.m. and was relieved to see the rain had stopped. But then looked at the Yahoo forecast and saw they are predicting another steady rain starting at 10am. So much for my Mother's Day trip to O'Donals to pick out new shrubs!

The Yahoo Mother's Day forecast turned out to be more accurate here. We had a reasonably sunny day. My wife received some Mother's Day plants which we set out and I got some tilling done creating a front foundation bed. I was surprised to find that the soil wasn't too wet to till. I planted some tomatoes under fluorescent lights.

I guess we are in for another rainy period now. Fortunately flooding is not a problem around here. Although a small brook runs through this property, contributing to our mosquito problem, the house and grounds are on relatively high ground.

MM

Sunny? There was sun in Maine? I have forgotten what the sun feels like!

We did have a respite yesterday morning to early afternoon. Just cloudy, but the rain held off. I was able to visit O'Donals with my family and pick out a few shrubs, giving myself a little hope that yes, someday, I will be able to plant them. Then it started up again, light but steady, all the rest of the day and most of the night.

to any of you who are experiencing REAL flooding in York Co--I just read the PPHerald and see that some people have had to evacuate, houses are flooding, and businesses are damaged.

I feel awful for complaining that I can't get my roses and shrubs planted.

Veilchen, I read your post yesterday and wondered if your furnace was flooded out by water in your cellar? It's bad enough that it's chilly and dreary outdoors, but being cold in your house would be a a total drag.

Roads all over my town are washed out, the Beach area is completely flooded, and at least on bridge has succumbed, dropping about 4' from the height of the road. I will try to get a picture of it today... . Mostly, it's just inconvenient for us.

Thanks for advice, Maineman. The Red Maples are in 3 gallon pots. The area is about an acre of grass and spongy throughout. A neighbor tried drainage ditches filled with gravel which didn't help. To our surprise, once hole was dug, water seeped in and is still standing about 4". We selected the Red Maple (Swamp Maple) because they tolerate wet feet. So, should we proceed?

Sounds even worse where you are, Chelone. The sump pump #2 was able to redirect the water away from the patio-form "pond" and down to the drain on the road via hose, so that stopped the stream of water coming into the cellar. No furnace damage. I am starting to worry about the sewers backing up around here, though. Latest weather report calls for quite a bit more rain tomorrow. On & off showers we can handle, but please no more steady rain!

People---please keep yourselves and your family safe! Your plants will survive or can be replaced whereas you can't. If you are told to evacuate, please co-operate We are all praying for drier weather for you. . .

My 70' x 30' veggie and herb garden with 20 wood-framed raised beds is under water! The paths, recently completed with two pickup loads of cedar mulch, are completely submerged and most of the 20 beds also are submerged or full of water even if some of the wood edges are above the water line. Sad day for me for so many veggies has just finally emerged as tiny seedlings: carrots; beets; chard; parsnips. They joined the peas, turnips, radishes, lettuce, potatoes, leeks, onions and broccoli raab that had been visible of a couple of weeks. Will they all be ruined? I presume so; and the water did not recede at all in the first 24 hours since the flood occurred Saturday night. It also looks like a lot of the soil floated out of the bed frames or under them. I am sure the aspaaragus,garlic, rhubarb and strawberries will endure this situation but I wonder if any of the seeds still in the ground or these seedlings will be there when it dries out? I can re-plant and my basement leakage was minor...but it is still a sad sight after the great tease of an early gardening startup this year.

Just got some tech support from my talented webmaster son so can offer some pictures of my flooded garden for viewing: http://www.schlaver.com/images/flood1.jpg
http://www.schlaver.com/images/flood2.jpg
http://www.schlaver.com/images/flood3.jpg
http://www.schlaver.com/images/flood4.jpg

Oh dear! And raised beds are supposed to improve drainage!

Some things might hang on and survive after the water drains away, but probably a lot of it won't take to being underwater so long, esp. if this continues into the forseeable future. (which is what the weather reports are saying). Just hope all your mulch hasn't washed away.

LL,

"To our surprise, once the hole was dug, water seeped in and is still standing about 4". We selected the Red Maple (Swamp Maple) because they tolerate wet feet. So, should we proceed?"

I would. The four inches of seeped water fits my definition of "wet feet". (grin)

It's raining here again. I'm glad I tilled the front foundation bed when I had the chance. I feel compassion for all the people who are having real flood problems, and count ourselves lucky for our minor inconveniences. Our little creek is roaring with excess water, but its minor flood is 30 feet downhill from our garden and nearly 50 feet downhill from our house. I think the worst damage it can do is create a bunch of mosquito ponds that we will have to deal with when the weather clears.

MM

pjsatsaco did your seedlings make it? Have your beds drained yet?

veilchen I spent time at O'Donals on Mother's Day too. I was there a few times this week. Glad you were able to get there.

To mehearty,
I am not in Saco during the week so anxiously visited my garden after arriving on the Downeaster train this afternoon. The garden paths are still under water! Most of the beds no longer have standing water but obviously are very saturated. I am surprised to see that even the tinest seedlings are still in place but I am really unsure if the week of being under water and/or still waterlogged means no hope for them. I sure hope the visible water in the paths disappears by Sunday, but I don't know if that is enough time...I may have to await my arrival the following Friday to see the real situation! My strawberries show many bloom and the asparagus spears are emerging so they seem to be ok. I am looking forward to the traditional planting of tomatoes and other things on Memorial Day Weekend. Hopefully the garden will be ready for any re-planting of other veggies then as well. Maybe if I make the first rhubarb pie for the season next weekend, that will bring some comfort from the stress of a flooded garden!

Just got back from Maine (Rockland area) where we are moving to in July. Spent almost 2 weeks there trying to plant a car load of plants I had brought from my Albany garden. I have to admit that we may have had a lot of rain but we also had FIVE (almost ashamed to say that) perfectly sunny days which helped drain some low, wet areas. Very soggy, saturated grounds, but nothing like pjsatsaco's. Will be coming up again with another load of plants this weekend. Hope things will be improving and I certainly hope that all of you in the Southern part are starting to dry out. Pretty rainy drive home for me yesterday...
pjsatsaco, glad your beds are looking better. Here are the links to your pictures for easier access.
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And now, to end on a cheerful (NOT) note, here is a link to an article that made the front page of the Times Union paper today -- Hope you can get to this article. Sorry to end on this scary note.

Make the best of this weather, and this weekend,
Anne-Marie

A hurricane in our area would cause incredible tree damage and the falling trees would do a lot of secondary damage, including to homes, powerlines, and other structures. And a lot of our streets and highways would be badly blocked by fallen trees and debris. Serious 911 calls would summon ambulances that couldn't get through.

When I get a chance (I'm swamped with gardening right now) I plan to take down some trees that are too close to the house and garage.

I've already done some of that work. It's a bit tricky because you have to put ropes on the trees to prevent them from falling where you don't want them to go, especially when they are naturally leaning in the wrong direction. Placing the ropes high in the trees for good leverage is itself a challenging task.

Let's hope we don't get our hurricane this year.

MM