Planting time has arrived.

The weather has moderated somewhat from the cold temps we were experiencing here.  It is still rather wet. I was hopeful that I would have begun to plant the early crops in my collapsible greenhouse, but life got in the way.  The company I work for has switched to a new computer program and as usual, it has been a rather bumpy road. The planters are set up, it's just that in a week and a half, my wife and I will be on vacation.  I could plant the seeds and let my son try to nurse them along while we are gone, but I doubt that the results would be worth the effort.  So, I will seed them in when we return.
We have had a streak of storms moving in and out and that has resulted in the soil being very wet.  I am having the same issues that the farmers in the mid west are currently working against.  The soil is just too wet and cold to allow for a planting.  I really feel bad for them given what they plant is for their livelihood.
We had a wet past couple of days and my rototiller therefore, was clogging up pretty badly today.  So, I looked in my garden shed and found a couple of very old but trustworthy tools.  The first tool is my handy dandy wheel cultivator.  I bought it at a roadside antique store as my wife and I were passing through an area in Pa.  It was pretty weathered but that didn't bother me as I kind of prefer my tools to have the "patina" of age.  Even though it was to go out in out front yard for a decoration, it hasn't seemed to have made that transition - yet.
The other tool is what is called a Norcross 55, 5 tine garden cultivator.  I haven't had need of using it until this year and I wasn't really expecting much out of it.  But, given the soil conditions, I felt I had no real choice.
Here are pictures of the two tools.

After cutting the whole patch with the wheel cultivator, I then used the Norcross cultivator to dig deeper into the soil.  Much to my amazement, it dug into the soil and broke up the water laden "mud".  It cut through the roots of the winter rye and broke them up with little assists from me.  To say I was pleased is an understatement.  Granted, I would have preferred the rototiller but that would have been an exercise in futility with the conditions present.  Here is a picture of the plot after all the digging was completed.  Not too bad for using antiques to get the job done.  

   

After that mild success, I decided to cut the area in for the glass greenhouse that I was supposed to assemble last year.  The area is at the end of the two pictured beds.  I took down the small structure at the end of the one bed and weed-whacked the remaining winter rye.  I then used the wheel cultivator followed by the Norcross cultivator much like I did on the earlier plot.  Again, I was pleasantly surprised with the Norcross piece.  And again, even though the ground was not best suited for cultivating, I was able to get the desired outcome as seen below. 

Now, hopefully, the ground can dry out a little and I can get underway with both the greenhouse and planting.  From the long term forecast, that really doesn't look too promising as we have 4 major storms that are to cross the US in the next two weeks.  How much rain is in store for us?  There is really is no sure way to know.  All one can do is just wait and see what happens.

In any case, I hope your gardens are coming along beautifully wherever you are.  Happy Gardening!