Saving the Strawberries

After several weeks of unbelievable weather, we're having a little bit of a reality check this week.  Yes, we are in Minnesota and this is what normal spring weather looks like.  

The temperature at our house dipped down to 29 degrees on Tuesday morning and 31 degrees this morning.  Most of what's growing in the garden and yard has handled the frost just fine: the garlic, raspberries, daffodils, and daylilies are pretty hardy and didn't seem to be phased one bit.  The leaves on the apple tree  looked a little droopy yesterday morning, but they had perked back up by afternoon.  So far the tree hasn't shown any signs of blossoming (this should be a year to rest, given how much it produced last year), so I don't think we were in any danger of losing an apple crop (if we even get one this year).  But the strawberries are another story. 

With lots of tender new growth and buds that are just starting to form, there is no way I am taking any chances, especially since this will (hopefully) be the first year of production for the strawberries  Time to dig out the blankets and sheets!  It was nothing like the lengths I went to during our last freeze warning, but I was kind of surprised to find that it takes three queen-sized blankets to cover the full length of the strawberry patch.  They've come a long way from the twenty little cuttings I transplanted last May - it looks promising for a good first crop!