Hard Graft

After a rest at Easter, down at the Wychurst Project, laying 4m³ of concrete to try and secure the site gates and then helping to put down the first 30m² of wooden floor - that's excavating the soil, putting down brick sleeper walls, then a timber deck, then the foor boards - I spent the weekend on the allotments digging (just for a change).
Friday and Sunday afternoon, after a visit to the Wokingham Beekeepers Assosication Apiary, saw me on the Bracknell plot. The first task on Friday was to clear enough space to transplant some of the self sown Salsify to the adjacent bed as it's in the way of this years potatoes. This meant diggin this section of the bed then leveling. It also enabled me to treat the remaining section of the bed with Armillatox so I can plant my remaining onions in about 3 weeks.
Sunday, saw me weeding last years french bean bed, the newly constructed one, to stop the weeds gaining to much of a hold, then transplanting some more of the salsify, before catching up with weeding the over-wintered onions. I estimate I've lost about 30% over the winter. It was then back to digging this years potatoe bed, before emptying the plasters trough, so I can use it as a composting space for couch grass and bind weed roots - it's my aim to be able to tackle the final strip down the edge of the plot where I've dumped all the couch and bind weed to date this year.
I've about 8 ft of the bed left to dig so with a fair wind this weekend I should get the Maris Piper and PFA planted.
Saturday (afternoon) saw me sweating heavily in the glorious sunshine on my Sunningdale plot. I managed to dig a strip about 4ft wide about 2/3 the way across to plot, so again with a fair wind I should be able to get a row of Cara or Estima and a row of Roosters in this weekend.
Saturday morning I'd actually spent emptying the green house so I could then spray the inside with a strong Armillatox solution. Hopefully this will kill off any malingering powdery mildew spores which did for all my cucumbers and melons last year. I also must make a greater effort and get and install a louvre window to imporve air circulation at the end of the greenhouse most badly affected.
On the record front I've now sown Black Russian, Green Nutmeg (heritage Melon), Marketmore, and Gardeners Delight in the propogator. The sowing of Tumbling Tom has been a disaster an I think I've 2 plants surviving - much like the previous sowings of Marketmore and assorted melons. All the previous sowings in the propogators, including the mint, have now been removed and the Super7 switched off.
Using this as a resevoir I've sown another batch of Greyhound and another batch of All-Year-Round (Cauliflower). This is not to be confused with the All-Year-Round (lettuce) also sown. In addition I've also sown Kohl Rabi (Lanro) and Sweet Basil.
What I now need to do is try and catch up with some of the pricking out, including getting the remaining onion sets into modules.
I should also not that I sowed French beans Brightstone and Purple teepee last Thursday, and have tonight moved both lots of peas (the first sown ones) to the cold frame.
All the lilies and tubs of potatoes are also now outside, and most of the potatoes have required earthing up. If nothing gets caught by a late frost I should have potatoes in about 6 weeks.