I cannot think of a whole lot of edible plants that will tolerate very much standing water for very long, but there's a few things.....water cress, curly cress, upland cress, taro (Colocasia esculenta), sorrel (both sheep sorrel and French sorrel), most if not all mints, chervil, lemon balm, arrowroot, ramps and daylilies. I have grown banana trees in large pots sunk into the lily pond back when I had a lily pond, but I took the pots out of the pond and let the trees dry out really, really well before freezing weather arrived. There's a lot of ornamental plants that will tolerate very wet soil for quite a long while, including blue flag (Iris versicolor), yellow flag (Iris pseudacorus), Swamp rose mallow and most regular rose mallows, many types of ferns, liatris and lobelia.

Thanks, Dawn. I'm not sure I want to think about it yet. DH and I will have to argue about it awhile, I expect. I wonder if 2 years under straw has made it any better.

Two years under straw should have made it quite a bit better, especially if you have earthworms under that straw. They'll tunnel through the soil and loosen it up a lot.