Some Progress

When the sun came out on Thursday, and it failed to rain Tursday night and Friday I had a vague hope of getting a reasonable amount of digging done on Saturday, the the waether as usual had other ideas and chucked it down Friday night. So it was with little zeal I made it doen to the plot on Saturday afternoon.
My first job was to unload the 850l of last years leaf fall I had collected that morning from the Landrover into a builders bag. The collection of this had come about as a part of the conversation I'd had with Linda when I'd collected the 4 pallets she'd offered on freecycle (http://www.freecycle.org) a fortnight ago. She had a large pile of leaves she wanted shot of and I had a use for them.
Anyway leaves unloaded, and two of my fellow plot holders greeted, I stuck the spade in at the bottom of the plot, to continue the bed I'd started last week. It was a little squelchy but I dediced to give diggin a shot, after all you never know how wet the grounds going to be until you turn the first sod. Well it was pretty bad, far worse than last week. I did about a foot before giving up and trying my luck at the top end of the plot.
The soil up here was much drier, aleast dry enough to make digging a reasonable option. It also seems that this bit of the plot has been better tended as the couch here was not a thick, or maybe thats down to what ever crop had been grown here. As digging progressed I began to wonder what I was dealing with. What ever it is it has deep thick roots. My first reaction was that it was horseradish but now I'm not so sure. I'd ruled out asparagus and a conversation with my father-in-law confirmed this. As I dug out a couple of smallish clumps of rhubarb from the same area it has to be capable of competing, and my current suspiscion is that its globe artichokes; from what I know of Sea Kale I don't think this is what I'm dealing with. I'm sure I shall find out as the season progresses and those roots I haven't yet dug up produce some leaves. Anyway I managed to get just under 3ft of my 6ft wide bed dug before fading light and an aching back sent me homeward.
Whislt Today dawned dry, the forecast was not good, and the exhaust on the beast needed some attention. By the time I'd finished it was raining again so I headed for the greenhouse. After beign 80 in there on Friday and 82 yesterday it was a might chilly in there today, so I retreated inside to retrieve my fleece.
Insulated against the chill I returned to sow my greenhouse crops for this year in my new propogator. After last years problems germinating the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and melons I'd made the decision to get an electric propogator this year, and had treated myself at Christmas to a Super7; effectively a heated window box tray with 7 6"x2" mini seed trays with vented lids. Each mini-tray comfortably accomodates 6-8 seeds which is more than sufficient for my needs, when I only require 2 or 4 of a given plant. So with 7 tray I set about sowing. In tray 1 went the Allicante. In tray 2 went my 2 remaining Bella ( I thought I had more), and 3 Perpinex. In tray 3 went 6 market more - why do you get a dozen or so outdoor cucumber seeds per packet but on 4 F1 greenhouse types?. In tray 4 went a dozen world beater, what was left in the packet. In tray 5 went 6 Sweetheart (cantelope melon), and in tray 6 went 6 Early sweet - another melon variety. Since I only had 2 Bella I sowed the remaining two Prima Top in tray 7, incase the Bella don't germinate. now I have to wait and see if the investment was worth while.
With the current warming trend I also decided to push some other crops along. I've sown a rootrainers worth of Early Onwards, and assuming these germinate ok I'll sow another tray in 3 weeks time. I also decided to experiment with sowing parsnips and scorzonera in guttering, after all it can't be any worse than last years diasterous first outdoor sowing. Retrieving the guttering I'd stock piled when I changed it on the house a few years ago I cut it into 3ft lengths, filled with compost, and sowed 2 with White gem and the other with scorzonera. These were then placed on the raised bed in the greenhouse.
Taking the remaining seed and a packet of Early Nantes, I made my way out to the polycloche I'd made about a month ago, which has been sitting over a section of the veg bed since its construction. Lifting it off the bed revealed nice dry soil - so its obviously been doing its job. I sowed one row of parsnips down one edge and 1 row of scorzonera down the other with two rows of Nantes between. I'm hoping I'll be able to pull the carrots before the Scorzonera and Parsnips swamp them, and then get another row of late carrots, or possibly leeks between them. Watering well I replaced the cloche and retreated back to the greenhouse.
With the light beginning to fade filled 6 6" pots and made a liberal sowing of leeks - this is the first batch I've grown from seed; usually I buy them as seedlings from Dobies. These too I transfered to the raised bed and then covered them with a sheet of glass.
I'm away next weekend so the sweet peas are going to have to wait until I return. I'm hoping the weather is going to be a little better as felling chestnuts in the rain isn't going to be fun.