I woke up on Friday knowing that it was not allergies! I had a fever and felt like crude. I spent the better part of the day feeling like that. So I sent my daughters off to the farmers market. They of course do not need their mother to make money.
We got much needed rain and not too much of it...just the right amount. Now maybe my plants will stop struggling for water and put a bit of growth on. This time of year too much rain can be as bad or worse than not enough.
Now I am waiting for wee plants to pop up from the ground. After a good rain like this, one usually expects about 5-7 days.
We have been picking strawberries and a lot of them. We could sell every one of them but I have promised my family that I am going to put food up for us this year. We have already picked several pounds and they have just started. I have learned that my oldest daughter likes strawberries. She is not much of a fruit consumer so I was surprised the other day as we were picking them that she had eaten about as many as she had in her bucket!!
Being sick has put a drag on my productivity. I have piddled here and there but overall, gotten little done in the past several days. I did manage (with help from #3) to plant my special sweet potato plants the day they arrived (Friday) even though I was sick. Now I am praying the bunnies do not eat the tops off of them before they get fully established. I spent a frightful amount of money for these purple sweet potatoes and plan to use them for seed stock for next year.
I can report that my makeshift greenhouse, made from our old A-frame chicken coop is working very nicely. I am so thankful to Hubby for fixing this for me. I have it full of all kinds of starts. Some I will need to get planted as soon as the ground can be worked.
The mint beds finally came out of their winter dormancy and they all look like they have spread except the spearmint...I cleaned some out of it so it should spread. We have an impressive mint bed...and collection. Aside from our ordinary spearmint we have one called Kentucky Colonel, especially good for Mint Juleps. The apple mint has spread widely this year and the one chocolate mint is rampant...the other chocolate, which actually tastes like chocolate is coming along. It was a wee start about two years ago. And then there is the lemon balm that I want to rip out... Mints are funny they come in all kinds of nuanced flavors. I have two different chocolates with two different flavors. I now have two different lemon balms and one is really good while the other tastes like Pledge (yuck)! I like growing the mints--just because they are fun.
And with that final thought, I am off to consider a Mint Julep with Four Roses...