Anybody else with ground too wet to rotavate and dig?

[George the Pigman]

Well its the beginning of April, we had a relatively dry March and my allotment is still to wet to rotavate and dig. Today I dug a small patch and it was like playing with putty. It is frustrating as the temperatures are above normal so normally I would be planting and sowing. Admittedly we have clay soil but in 20 years I have never known this problem being so bad at this time of year. Must be all that rain over winter - although in Birmingham we didn't have it as bad as the South.
Anybody else with the same problem?

[George the Pigman]

[telboy]

Yes in North Oxon. Bl€€dy frustrating in it? Decided to piddle off to Spain for a week and hope for a restart on return!

[galina]

Not brilliant here either.  Bits are fine to dig, others not.  And we had faint drizzle on and off too.  I planted the potatoes into soil with pretty big clods, just about the worst preparation for potatoes ever.  The peas are in slightly drier and therefore more crumbly soil and there is quality compost from my bins in the planting holes. 

Mowed a bit and mulched the potatoes with the grass cuttings.  The worms will hopefully drag the grass down and do a bit of magic this year.  Can't be helped.

I want to start sowing some of the finer seeds, turnips, parsnips, carrots etc, but I am struggling to get the soil fine enough.  Where I dug and mulched with compost 2 weeks ago is reasonable, just dug that bit over for the second time and it is not too bad, but still not good enough for raking.  I may have to make drills and fill with potting compost before sowing.

Haven't had the rotovator out yet, still too wet for that.  So no, you are not alone here,  half the problem is that the soil has compacted badly with the standing water over winter, and needs a lot of working.

[gazza1960]

Yep,my plot,,,,,,well ,,,,new garden .......is sopping wet from a steady drizzle all day today and it was really heavy already as I've tried on and off mid week to clear the ground and my booties were going ankle deep here and there so all I can do is look at it from the window in the dry....ok,I'll have to play a bit more in the greenhouse.

Gazza

[RenishawPhil]

our soil seems very good , not wet, rotovated a good few times as well