The strawberries have started flowering and luckily even though we have had some late frosts and the arctic breezes of the other week, they have all survived nicely. Which means it bodes well for some tasty fruit in a few weeks.
That they have held on to their flowers and not gone black is mostly thanks to them being safe in pots while they were waiting to be replanted and kept in the net tunnel. It protects all the plants in it from harsh winds and manages to stay just a degree or so warmer than outside.
The new strawberry bed was ready thanks to LH and Simon filling it last month, and the soil had had plenty of time to settle naturally, so on Friday of last week I set to replanting.
I had water on standby in buckets along with two watering cans full as LH had commandeered the hosepipe for washing down the solar panels on the garage and workshop roof.
An hour or so later and I had fifty plants in this bed.
I've left a few in this planter as I ran out of space ....
...and the other 30 have been planted into the end bed of the net tunnel, with a pea support and three pea seedlings in the center. I just thought it looked nice and I like to work in an attractive area :-)
Strawberries in the sunshine, we've had some gloriously sunny days over this past week.
I can't use the lower strawberry bed of the two just yet, because two naughty chickens keep escaping from Chicken Land and scratching around in the chippings. Any plants put in there at the moment would soon be covered in woodchip. I'm thinking of using it for a few tomato plants this year, once the chooks move back to Chicken World that is, and we will think of a solution to the chicken problem in time for next year After thinking about it I have decided to use this bed for all the new runners the older plants will hopefully throw off at the end of their fruiting season ... so it will be a strawberry bed eventually.
Things always work out in the end :-)
Sue xx
