Too squishy out there? The planting can wait

The rain and melting snow have turned lawns into bogs. With each step we take, water squishes noisily out of the ground. Paths are muddy and slippery.

But there are amazing varieties of fruit trees and roses simply begging to be bought. There are bulbs to purchase, flowering shrubs that plead to be part of the landscape. Further, it's time for pruning and spraying. Gardeners are itching to get back into the garden.

So should they?

"Stay inside," says Fred Hoffman (www.farmerfred.com). "Enjoy the rain from indoors. Don't plant anything while the ground is soggy."

Chuck Ingels, the farm and horticulture adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension, concurs: "Soggy gardening? I try not to do it."

There are plenty of good reasons for staying off the soil until things dry out a bit. "Walking on the soil, driving on it, working it -- they'll all compact the soil," Ingels says. "It will destroy the structure of the soil."

"If you just have to, buy more plants," says Bob Hamm, who oversees benefit plant sales, "then store them in pots, heel them in until the ground is drier. I'm putting bare-root perennials in plastic bags with the air removed and storing them in the refrigerator. You can store them between 35 and 40 degrees for weeks that way."

Packaged roses or trees? "They can be kept outside in their packages for a while. Don't put them where they'll dry out or where it's too warm," Hamm says.

How do you tell if the soil is too wet? If you can pick it up and water squeezes out of it, it's too wet, says Hamm. It shouldn't feel like modeling clay. If it breaks apart easily, you're getting there.

Hoffman recommends digging down 8 or 10 inches and checking the soil. "Don't just grab a handful from the top of the ground."

Hoffman recommends waiting until soil temperatures are above 50 degrees, with the exception of "cool-season annuals like pansies, snapdragons, broccoli, cauliflowers, lettuce."