Weeds weeds everywhere

I swear that the weeds are worse this year than they were last year, either that or I just haven't got to grips with them yet. I had grass up to my waist on the undug back section of the allotment and in a fit of desperation I simply knocked it all over flat and covered it with weed suppressing fabric held down with every brick I could get my hands on. I made the executive decision that we will not be digging that section of the allotment, we'll just finish the bed that's half done and make do with what we've got.

Yesterday evening after dinner (it was too hot for the rest of the weekend) we weeded 3 of the 5 potato beds and watered them. Of course I was woken up at 4am this morning by the sound of rain but at least the ground got something, I was throwing up dust clouds into the air using the hoe yesterday.

This week is supposed to be more mild than last so I'm thinking that I will try and start getting the seedlings planted out, they are all doing quite well in the shed except for the sweetcorn which all died off (my Mother's from the same seed packet did the same, I am going to try and direct sew a square and see what happens). I would like to get the courgettes in and prepare the pumpkin and broccoli beds, the broccoli and cauliflower seedlings don't look so hot, not sure what's wrong with them...

None of my rainbow chard came up and there is no sign of any parsnips or the radish that I put in with it that was supposed to mark the rows. The parsnips too forever to germinate last year so I'm leaving that bed alone but I need to get in more spinach as I've only got about 3 plants of that up too.

The weather has been so unhelpful this year, we had 2 solid weeks of heavy rain and then 2 weeks of blazing sun. My rhubarb chard came up well and then went to seed within a week, I haven't picked any of it at all. I will pull that up and stick in a whole packet of rainbow chard if I can find another packet to buy. Another crop that was destroyed by the weather was the basket of lettuce I planted. It came up half an inch and then was drenched and now that the weather is hot it's growing straight up and flowering, no leaves at all to be picked. The second lot I planted is coming along much better so I'm going to pull out the old lot, plant another new lot in a medium pot and fill the basket with spinach instead I think. The final crop to die off was the cucumbers, the rain just did them in totally. Luckily I have my Stimora Mix gherkins/cucumbers which are doing well so I will just let some of them grow bigger. I have only had 2 spring onions come up, I must stick some more of those in, and my tomato seedlings are literally only half an inch tall, I want to go and see if we can find any plants anywhere as I don't think I'm going to get much with mine.

So, the general round-up is that I've been a bit lazy and not achieved much and what I have achieved has been thwarted by odd weather. The spuds are doing well though, the onions are almost ready and hopefully the seedlings will do better for us, but it was disheartening yesterday to see what a mess the plot looks, I'm trying to focus on the beds and keeping them cleared but it's hard to blinker yourself all the time, it was much nicer over winter when things neater!