A wet afternoon

​Monday 9th April
A wet forecast for the afternoon gave me the chance to work inside my shed laying the second hand laminated flooring I had stored there. However, as I went to check my first task I realised I had left my cordless drill behind and the first job was to unscrew the shelving standing on the floor.
Cursing I looked around the plot in search of alternative jobs.
First I got out my pricey cultivator and ran it over the newly dug brassica patch to break down the lumps.

Soon I had reduced it to a fine tilth on the surface but I will have to tread it over to consolidate it. That will have to wait until it is a bit drier.

Then I turned to dealing with the flowering Groundsel widely spread over the plot. Using a hand fork to ease the weeds out of the ground I worked around the plot trying to remove every last mature Groundsel plant. As I've said before, I cannot compost it as it continues to set seed despite being out of the ground so I left it in heaps of the path ready to take to the tip, something I cannot delay too long if the seeds are not to fly all over the place.
I then started on hoeing between the recently weeded onion and shallots rows. The soil had packed down under the boards I had used to work from so running the cultivator between the plants produced a fine guilty as before - until I tried to use it on the rows I had not yet weeded!

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​Before long the spiked wheels at the front had clogged up and I was just rollering the surface! I had to finish the job with a standard hoe but that only cut under the weeds leaving each still attached to its own clod of earth - ready to continue growing so I had to lift each weed clear onto the vacant patch beside the shallots.

Having done that I thought it might be good to dig over that vacant patch ready for sowing other root vegetables. I dug out the initial trench along the fence loading the wheelbarrow with the soil. I was pleased that there was only a small 'nest' of bindweed roots especially as my neighbour has worked hard to clear all the weeds from his side of the fence. However, once I started digging I realised that it was far too wet and I was just squeezing the earth into wet clods.
I therefore turned to weeding my strawberry patch next to the vacant patch. It should have been done last autumn but 'better late than never!' The strawberries had sent out hundreds of runners so I was not unhappy when alot of the small plantlets came up with the debris. One large weed, though dead, had left a deep and tough root that needed a spade to dig it out!
Finally I cut the stalks of the two remaining Brussel Sprout plants, with the last of the sprouts attached, to take home (as they will store longer still attached) and pulled up the stumps which showed a nice healthy root system underground, no club root, thank goodness. I picked a handful of tiny sprouts from the end, malformed, plant to take home to test if they are worth keeping. I then dug up a couple of leeks.
Just as I finished trimming the leeks it started drizzling hard so I got wet cleaning the copious mud off the tools before I could climb in the car to go home!
On the way out I got angry at the comment scribbled in permanent felt pen of the notice about shutting the gate. I vented my spleen on the homepage of the website and will replace the notice.