It could have been worse.
This is a scene which was repeated again and again in this last week. In 7 days we had about a foot of rain. Some places fairly close got more than we did, some areas got large hail, while others had devastating straight line winds which ripped roofs off of homes, smashed trees, and destroyed most in their paths without every actually forming a tornado.
When the sun came out, the Yarrow had been laid down (since tied back up with a stake) and Patti found an interesting use for the walker I only used for one day in the hospital.
<shrug> Better there than me hobbling around with it. I prefer the cane.
3.5 inches of rain on successive days was really amazing. This is a bucket after one night.
Melons and squashes in the yard were pounded into the mud, but I assume that since they are not broken, that they will perk back up.
The clematis looks worn, and for those who have asked what kind it is, the variety is called FIREWORKS.
The sun was kind enough to show itself here and there, which then led us to our first strawberries. No processing yet. Just eating them as we find them.
The Lemon Thyme is happily flowering. The tiny delicate flowers have been covered with insects in previous years. Pollinators are few and far between so far this year.
Dragonflys are starting to appear here and there in the yard, and I managed to finally get a good photo of a patient one. Wish I had a hundred of those mosquito hawks hovering around the yard every day, but I will take what I can get.
The topsetting onions are, well, topsetting. In a few weeks those baby onions growing out the tops will be ready to be pickled or planted, depending on what I feel like doing at the time. I have not decided yet. The more I plant, the more I have next year, and we have been eating a lot of them as fresh green onions this year.
Garlic scapes are starting to show as well. I picked about 20 of them which ended up sauteed and mixed with 20 crappie fillets, along with a bunch of other herbs from the garden, in fish tacos this evening.
Which leads us to where I was earlier today. Frank had been gone fishing for a week (that is where the fish we had for dinner tonight came from) and I had not gone out to the Minnetonka garden because it had rained the whole time he was gone. Today when we went out, it had not been raining for 40 hours, and we figured the garden would be well drained. We were also worried about what damage we would find there as there are just a ton of trees down in the area and the roads which had been blocked with debris had just opened.
Our fears were unfounded. The gardens looked great, and we got to hoeing and weeding things out. That is two beds of Jimmy Nardello peppers in the photo above, and Frank.
Once that was all done, we took the time to haul all of the tall tomato cages over from Frank’s house (about 50 of them) and got all of the indeterminate tomatoes caged and tied upright. Many of them had been growing prostrate on the ground and had snaked along several feet. Might take them a few days to straighten out.
When all was said and done, all of the planted tomato and pepper beds were weeded, I had strung the bean trellis in the central part where there are beans planted and growing, and I hand weeded another bed for tomatoes, peppers, or beans. I am not sure which yet. After that one there is only a couple left to do though time is getting short. Summer is here, so it has to be things that mature pretty quickly. I have a few flats of short season determinate tomatoes, and that, I think, is what I am going to primarily put in.
We packed up when some sprinkles started hitting us, the mosquitoes found Frank, and thunder was rumbling in the distance. Frank drove me home and …….. it didn’t rain. It got close to us, but dissipated before arriving. Not going to complain about that happening until we have had a few weeks without rain, which certainly has not happened yet this summer. Need to get out to the Ness farm, finish the first full weeding, and assess damage and replants.
