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You are here: Home / Garden / It’s Still 40 and it’s Still Raining

It’s Still 40 and it’s Still Raining

May 13, 2010

I need a garden fix. I want to weed. I want to escape this stupid computer and stupid soccer and get the Hell out of my office. My dog is ready to implode. I have chicks in my laundry room. The cats are sitting in the trees with the bird feeders. It’s raining. It’s cold. And I never went looking for more Morel mushrooms. My asparagus has stopped growing. I want to take a bath. I want to take a bath and go back to bed. I want to eat banana bread in the bath and then go to bed.

Waa waa wahh.

How’s that for a pity party? I’m good at those. Oh. I forgot one thing. I have a headache. I had two meager glasses of wine last night after a long day and today I have a headache. So stupid.

With plenty of work-work to do today (work-work is my made up word meaning ‘real work’ for ‘real clients’), I put on my  ugly hood (shown on model with the face I use to scare my kids with):

And went out to feed the chickens, the birds, empty the compost bucket and take some garden pictures. Come along for the ride…

First stop: Let the chickens out. You think that’s a scary face in the photo above? How about this one? Especially when he flies at your face. I have a big stick I use to keep him in his place.

Sadly, I lost one of my two hens — on MOTHER’S DAY of all days. She must have flown out of the 7′ high fence. We are blaming Lola.

Next stop: Empty the compost and check out the garden.

That’s looking back toward the house. You can see that not much has happened in the last three weeks.

Lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula and cilantro are all just eeking along.

One big surprise are the strawberry plants. They were new last year. I struggled with bugs and this year I have removed the straw mulch, having read it makes the bug problem worse. My *plan* is to keep the refuse under the plants very clean. We’ll see how that goes…

Look at all the blooms!

Here is the garlic, planted last Fall. It is huge compared to other years. The heavy snowfall protected the bulbs and I didn’t lose even one. I predict a June harvest instead of last year’s August harvest. That is both good and bad. Good because I’ll have garlic sooner, bad because it is much harder to store through the hot months.

Here are those scary red potatoes I planted in early March. They are doing well, except for the frost damage from last weekend.

It got down to 28 here in Watertown. See the damage?

And they were even covered with a heavy blanket:

In fact, I tried to cover EVERYTHING with blankets, which was actually quite funny:

So glad I did. Not sure what the apples will do, but you can tell which blossoms were covered and which weren’t.

Here are those shallot plants I was so worried wouldn’t fill in. I should have planted the bulbs last Fall with the garlic, but I forgot. They went into the ground in late March. Most came up and and I am excited. I haven’t had shallots in several years.

I have a bunch more pictures to share, but my ‘work-work’ awaits. After the garden/compost stop, I filled the bird feeders. Thanks to Red-Winged Blackbirds, my gallon-sized feeders have to be filled daily if I want to sustain my little Chickadees, Nuthatches, Red-Bellied Woodpeckers and so on. On the way, I pass my very favorite shrub, the Snowball Viburnum:


I hack about six feet off this thing every year. (I have no idea how large it would eventually get.) I’m trying to prune it so that the left side sort of arches over the path. Yeah. Good luck on that one. I’m a spaz with a pruning saw…

That’s the flower close-up. It is the most gorgeous chartreuse green at this time of year. No scent to the flower, unfortunately, but man are they pretty in a vase.

Then it’s back into my God-Forsaken house with my God-Forsaken animals and the new God-Forsaken chicks.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Jennie. Please send Sunshine. And a personal assistant. I promise to try to be a nicer person.

Filed Under: Garden, Home Tagged With: Snowball Viburnum, garden, Frost, Lettuce, garlic, spring, kale, shallots, potatoes, Rain, Strawberries

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Comments

  1. Nat Alea from OK says

    May 13, 2010 at 3:09 pm

    OOOHHHH!!!! I’m raising my hand to be your assistant because funnily I’m a secretary. I will gladly go up to your neck of the woods. As loong as it’s not humid and don’t have tornadoes (really getting tired of those). Your garden looks beautiful, and now I know what my little measly strawberry plant is supposed to look like. I knew we’re supposed to be soul sisters because the snow ball bush is my favorite bush. (Hope that doesn’t sound a little stalkerish) Take a nice deep breath and get back to work-work!

  2. Jennifer Menke says

    May 13, 2010 at 3:11 pm

    No, No. I think a stalker would be awesome! You can be mine! Seriously though? Your favorite bush is a snowball viburnum? We must meet sometime…

  3. Nat Alea from OK says

    May 14, 2010 at 8:26 am

    Seriously. My grandma had a HUGE snowball bush in her front yard and it was perfect to hide under and play with my dolls. I lived under that bush all summer long. It was beautiful. (sniff, sniff). If you’re ever down in OK (don’t come now, TORNADOS is all I have to say) drop by!!!!

    P.S. I think you need to make your picture your screen saver!!!! Hilarious!!!!!! Stay dry and have a great weekend.

  4. Jay Morgan says

    May 14, 2010 at 12:52 pm

    When I showed Mom this blog and your perfectly psycho picture her comment was ” don’t know how, but we certainly raised our kids to have an abundance of self confidence. I would NEVER put a pic of myself anywhere, especially one like THAT!”

    My comment is that rooster is so ugly along with being mean that we should have him stuffed alongside Sarge

  5. Michelle says

    May 17, 2010 at 8:38 am

    You got the sunshine and warm weather this past weekend, but no assistant in the future for you. Two words: Austerity Program. Your strawberry plants will be producing in no time, and I can’t wait to have the first one! I want a lilac bush and now I want a snowball bush! It’s beautiful!

  6. Lisa says

    May 17, 2010 at 10:43 pm

    Holy cats! Your garden is *gigantic*

  7. Rachel says

    May 18, 2010 at 2:23 pm

    Wow. Just wow. Your garden is really something to envy. I LOVE shallots and would really like to have some chickens. Mr. Wonderful said unequivocally NO on the chickens. After seeing the breadth of your garden I can see why for you -eh…. what’s a couple of chickens?

  8. Jennifer Menke says

    May 20, 2010 at 10:33 am

    Gak! I’ve been slacking off, haven’t I?

    Just so you guys know: I hate all pictures of me, and therefore I tend to become very enamored of the scary ugly pictures of myself. It’s better that way…

    Rachel: Eh, what’s a couple chickens? That’s what my daughter is trying to slide past me, only she is replacing the word “chickens” with the word “Llama.”

    I will not cave. I will not cave.

  9. Jennifer Menke says

    May 25, 2010 at 11:29 am

    Lisa: I forgot to say that I LOVE that you say HOLY CATS too! I say it all the time…

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About Me

Jen menke

I’m a mostly-retired, pretend graphics and web developer (but don’t judge my skillz by THIS site!). We sold our dream home in Watertown, MN and downsized to a “Villa” in Excelsior, MN and built a home in our dream location of Eagle, CO and now split our time between the two states. It is truly a dichotomous life of absentee gardening and getting together with friends & family while in MN and playing hard and hermitting while in CO. I’ve let the blog go but a trip to Alaska has me resurrecting the Road Warriors series. My beloved brother is my biggest fan and I am doing this just for him.

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