Taters and Ambrosia

Weather report:  High 60ºF.  Ground temperature 55ºF.  Mild north wind, mostly overcast.

When the wind is coming from the north blowing south, that's a north wind, right?  I've always been a little fuzzy on the exact meaning of a direction applied to wind.  Well, today, it was blowing from the north to the south and I'm going to refer to it as a north wind, right or wrong.

I got home from work around 7:00 p.m. today, took a few minutes to rustle up some mac and cheese for the starving Mrs. ProfessorRoush, and around 7:30 I made it out to the garden for the imperative activity of planting the seed potatoes and raking the straw off the strawberries.  Sixteen, well-scabbed, half-potatoes are now planted, hopefully happy in the cold and very wet earth.  This calendar day (April 1st) is the latest I've ever planted potatoes.  And, yes, I'm the proud owner of a few of those metal row stake/identifiers and I've painted them all wildflower blue like my garden benches.

I've also been chomping at the bit to uncover the strawberries.  With the next 10 day forecast free of low temperatures that might allow frost, I raked off the majority of the straw and deposited it as mulch in other parts of the garden.  The strawberries currently look great; green and happy beneath the straw.  Only in a few small places was the straw still moist from the recent rains, so it was likely the proper depth not to smother the wintering buds beneath it. Stay away frost, I can already taste those ripe warm strawberries!