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Well, it's true there's heavy clay about 18" down, but this field was a potato farm decades ago, and the topsoil has been tilled and productive in years past. It usually drains acceptably. We add MiracleGro type soil to the existing topsoil wherever we plant, and of course mulch. But it seems like the entire top layer, a foot or so down, is saturated.

But mainly though it's the houseplants that freaked me out by dying. They're not in the field soil -- they're just in their regular pots they've always been in.

I moved/linked your initial post over to our Garden Thread for the week, and also pinged you over there.

I’m in the same boat with TOO MUCH RAIN! However - this time last year was already in the 80’s with BRUTAL humidity levels, so I’ll take cooler and rainy over THAT!

That said, today is cool, rainy and 60 degrees - tops! About 15 degrees BELOW normal.

Earth IS going into a ‘Solar Minimum’ so that means cooler temps for a lot of us now through 2025. (Trump’s Fault, LOL!)

“But mainly though it’s the houseplants that freaked me out by dying. They’re not in the field soil — they’re just in their regular pots they’ve always been in.”

A few thoughts on the houseplant situation:

Is there good drainage in each pot? If the houseplants are saturated, that’s suffocating the roots. Not a good thing.

Are your night time temps falling below 50 degrees? Houseplants are generally tropical, and they don’t like that at all! Neither do my tomatoes this season - who are still green, but freaking out and setting fruit too soon and pretty much just SITTING THERE praying for SUNSHINE!

When you moved your houseplants outdoors, did you put them into bright, direct sun? Doesn’t sound like you’ve had much sun if it’s raining so much, but they can get ‘sunburn’ just like we can.

Those are my best guesses. The rest is up to God, LOL!

dayglored :" But mainly though it's the houseplants that freaked me out by dying.
They're not in the field soil -- they're just in their regular pots they've always been in."

It sounds like they've gotten 'sun stroke" (too much sunlight), all at once.
It sounds like these houseplants hadn't been 'hardened off' by gradually giving them increasing sunlight.
Houseplants that have been over-wintered indoors probably received indirect sunlight, and they got used to it.
Leaving them suddenly in full sunlight, they probably got too much sunshine = sunburn.
They may still be salvageable if you bring them back indoors, and trim off the dead debris .
This last winter saw many grey overcast days in Western NY, even though it didn't snow.