No Rest!

It's been a long weekend. At the close of play last weekend this one was going to be busy, but it got worse on Monday. I'd ordered the early brassica collection from Marshals, with a supposed delivery of late March, but late March came and went and no brassicas. They had to turn up sometime but why Monday, since they were supposed to go in immediately it was about the worst possible day for them to arrive. All I could manage was to stuff them into a pot, give them some water, and leave them in the greenhouse all week.
There was, I suppose an upside, I put in some extra time at work early in the week and was able to leave early on Friday, making it to the Bracknell plot just before six. I raked out enough of bed 1, the potato bed from last year, to sow the bulk of the onions. I think I managed 3 rows of 13, a mixture of Red Baron and Sturon. In between these I put in two rows of carrots, one Early Nantes and the other Autumn King.
I then raked out the two beds supposedly for my kids use, but they're only taking a superficial interest, and re-established the wire grids that divide them up. I then put in the onions according to plan, and broadcast Early Nantes in the appropriate grid square before watering it in. By the time I made it home it was nearly quarter to eight.
Saturday started with me doing a few things I'd neglected the previous week, like watering all my house plants, which were definitely in need of a drink. It was then off to load the trailer with manure, whilst playing dodge the hail shower, a game that lasted most of the weekend.
After lunch it was down the Sunningdale plot, and after unhitching the trailer, the first order of the day was to get the brassicas in. I'm pushing the spacing a little putting 4 rows in a 4ft x 10ft bed,but won't have room for everything otherwise. The Excel (cabbage) went in 6" from the edge with 12" between plants, with the calabrese (Marathon) at 12" from the cabbage, giving 12" between the two rows, again with 12" between plants. I've actually got enough space for another row of 4 on the end - may put the greyhound in there when it's a little bigger.
The whole bed is covered with a cloche made from water pipe, and a 2m wide 10mm square net, under which I've put the fleece. Unfortunately the fleece is only 1.5m wide so doesn't cover the last row of cabbage. I have arranged it so that the windward side is protected and hope we don't get any severe frosts.
All I'm now waiting for is the cauliflower, although I've changed my mind as to which bed it's going in to. Marshals are also out of stock of the original variety offered, Baldo, but should be sending Aviron as a replacement in a couple of weeks - probably arrive on a Monday again though.
Brassicas planted I changed location to my father-in-laws plot to unload the trailer. When he arrived and offered to help me unload, I found it difficult to refuse the offer, and the two of us made short work of it, although we did have to stop twice whilst rain stopped play. I then set about finishing digging the potato bed, a task which was hampered by another rain interlude. By half five I'd had enough and packed up with 4 rows left to dig.
Refreshed with coffee and bakewell tart, I made my way home, to spend another hour and a half in the greenhouse, discovering that the ****** mouse had taken the tops off all the salsify seedlings, and eaten yet another batch of lettuce seedlings.
Faced with having to resow the lettuce I took the opportunity to clear what hadn't germinated from the propagator and resow. So in went what was left of the Defender and Tosca seed, the remainder of the Turks Turban and Buttercup, and the remainder of the Telegraph and Marketmore. In another tray I sowed Worldbeater (pepper) and De Cayenne (Chille). I was going to sow my Gartenperle along with the Moneymaker in the last tray, until I opened the sealed foil packet to discover no seed. I await Thompson & Morgans response to my email with interest - especially as I've had two packets of White Gem parsnip seed bought from them last May chitting in the boiler cupboard for 18 days now with not one sign of anything wanting to germinate. I wasn't a happy bunny as you can imagine.
Things looked up this morning though, even if though the weather didn't look that promising. I opened the greenhouse to find Mr Mouse caught under the pint glass we'd left invitingly for him - he's now residing either in a tree somewhere a long way from my greenhouse or more hopefully an OWL.
Inspired by the turn of events, I decide to fit the net to the mini-greenhouse frame I picked up last weekend, in order to put the Greyhound I'd potted on last night outside - its been in the cold frame for the last couple of weeks so there shouldn't be any problems. I also took the decision to move everything out of the greenhouse, lillies, carrots (the Blanche a Collet Vert Hors Terre), and all of the potatoes ,except the Mayan Gold which aren't through yet. I suspect I'm going to have to cover these with fleece during the week as there are a few cold nights forecast.
It was then off to the plot to finish the digging and get the maincrop spuds in. I'd got as far as raking 3/4 of the bed level and finishing the digging before the prolonged shower, hail included, arrived. By the time it stopped and hour later I was the only one left on site, although I had been the first to retreat to my car. I'd watched that storm roll up and wasn't going to sit sopping wet whilst it finished deluging.
Rain over, I finished the raking, the soil somewhat heavier now, and then set to planting. I'd discussed the options yesterday evening, and had decided to push the spacing, putting them in at 12" apart rather than 15", and 24" between rows (to get 4 in), rather than 30". As it was the presence of the fruit bushes meant the 4th row was short by 3 spuds, I'll have to find somewhere else for these. I suspect I'll have to build the wrong half of the last raised bed at Bracknell first, so I can get the Pink Fir Apple left from last years crop in, and these will probably go in with those.
I finished my time at the plot by starting on the last of the existing raised beds on the plot. It's been covered with carpet since November, and had previously been used to grow parsnips and carrots, all of which had been left in the ground. Whilst the parsnips were intact, if not usable, the carrots were serving as a reservoir for millipedes. With this in mind I'll put the cauliflower in here, as putting any sort of root crop in this bed for a couple of years is asking for trouble. All I've got to do now is finish digging it.
The final job of the day, other than writing this, was to get the remainder of my Vales Emerald and a chunk of the remaining Charlottes into the dustbins, now that the weather is, hopefully, warming up. I normally only put 5 potatoes per bin, but I had 6 Vales Emerald left so put the lot in and 6 Charlottes to match. It'll be a useful comparison.
Perhaps I'll have a chance to take some pictures in a couple of weeks, assuming I have time, by which time there may be something to see. Until then...