Greetings everybody,
Sorry for the hiatus but I had dental surgery and have done pretty much nothing at all for the last 5 days as per doctor's orders.
To continue with the bad news, the last three broccoli plants are gone. Still have no idea what has eaten them. Very upsetting. I will start more seed for a fall crop and hope to solve the problem in the interim.
Despite feeling like crap after the whole dental thing, I managed to get the last 50 strawberry plants in the ground as they really needed to go in.
Here is how I plant strawberries.
They look lovely and healthy, don't they?
The first thing I do is to soak them for about 15 - 20 minutes in a bucket of water so the roots are nice and hydrated.
Then I trim the roots of the plants to about 5-6 inches long.
This particular variety I am planting are day neutrals so I will get a crop from them this year as they will continue to flower and bear fruit until the autumn.
I am planting in a modified matted row/hill system. I am planting them 18" apart down each side of the bed but they are offset so they are not directly opposite each other. When the plants form runners next year, I will keep one or two runners only from each mother plant to train into the opposite side of the bed. When the runners are well established in the second year, I will remove the mother plant (compost) and begin the whole thing all over again, this time going in the opposite direction.
I use a yardstick to measure out the correct spacing and simply poke my finger into the soil to make a planting mark. Easy peasy.
I then slide my hand down into the soil to create a trench for each plant.
I then spread out the roots of the plant into a fan shape and gently slip it into the trench, holding it against the front side of the trench with one hand while I gently tuck the soil firmly against the roots with the other hand. Sorry there is no picture of that last bit but I only have two hands and they were both occupied with the plant so no free hand for the camera.
One of the most important things about planting strawberries is that they must go in at the correct depth. Strawberries have a crown which is a fairly good size for you to see it. You want to plant it half way up that crown. If is is planted too deeply, the poor little plant will actually suffocate. If it is planted too shallowly, it will dry out and die also. So, halfway is what you want as you can see from this photo. I got right down on the ground to get this one.
So now we have all the beds planted out. Two of the rows are early and late season June bearing plants and the third row are the ones I just planted, the day neutrals. I still need to completely fill in the pathways with the pea stone on top of the landscape fabric. It will keep things nice and neat and clean and hopefully weed free.
Now, much as it will break my heart to do it, when the June bearing plants flower this year, I will remove all of the blossom from them. I will also remove any runners. I want these plants to develop good strong root systems so that next year they will produce a huge crop of berries.
There is some consolation as we should get some berries from the day neutrals this year. I will remove the blossoms from them for the month of June and then after that I will allow them to flower and produce fruit.
These plants are all in raised beds which have been filled with a mixture of topsoil, compost and rotted manure. That is a recipe for weed seeds as you can see in this rhubarb bed which was transplanted about 10 days ago or so.
What I do is to allow that first flush of weeds to appear, clear them all off carefully, water the plants well and then apply a mulch.
I will do the rhubarb beds this week and then the strawberries in about 10 days or so. Naturally we will mulch the strawberries with straw. Not only will it help to suppress the weeds but it will keep the roots moist and it will keep the berries nice and clean.
Well that is it for me for today. Hope you have a wonderful weekend planned. Thanks so much for visiting today. Cheers.
Sorry for the hiatus but I had dental surgery and have done pretty much nothing at all for the last 5 days as per doctor's orders.
To continue with the bad news, the last three broccoli plants are gone. Still have no idea what has eaten them. Very upsetting. I will start more seed for a fall crop and hope to solve the problem in the interim.
Despite feeling like crap after the whole dental thing, I managed to get the last 50 strawberry plants in the ground as they really needed to go in.
Here is how I plant strawberries.
They look lovely and healthy, don't they?
The first thing I do is to soak them for about 15 - 20 minutes in a bucket of water so the roots are nice and hydrated.
Then I trim the roots of the plants to about 5-6 inches long.
This particular variety I am planting are day neutrals so I will get a crop from them this year as they will continue to flower and bear fruit until the autumn.
I am planting in a modified matted row/hill system. I am planting them 18" apart down each side of the bed but they are offset so they are not directly opposite each other. When the plants form runners next year, I will keep one or two runners only from each mother plant to train into the opposite side of the bed. When the runners are well established in the second year, I will remove the mother plant (compost) and begin the whole thing all over again, this time going in the opposite direction.
I use a yardstick to measure out the correct spacing and simply poke my finger into the soil to make a planting mark. Easy peasy.
I then slide my hand down into the soil to create a trench for each plant.
I then spread out the roots of the plant into a fan shape and gently slip it into the trench, holding it against the front side of the trench with one hand while I gently tuck the soil firmly against the roots with the other hand. Sorry there is no picture of that last bit but I only have two hands and they were both occupied with the plant so no free hand for the camera.
One of the most important things about planting strawberries is that they must go in at the correct depth. Strawberries have a crown which is a fairly good size for you to see it. You want to plant it half way up that crown. If is is planted too deeply, the poor little plant will actually suffocate. If it is planted too shallowly, it will dry out and die also. So, halfway is what you want as you can see from this photo. I got right down on the ground to get this one.
So now we have all the beds planted out. Two of the rows are early and late season June bearing plants and the third row are the ones I just planted, the day neutrals. I still need to completely fill in the pathways with the pea stone on top of the landscape fabric. It will keep things nice and neat and clean and hopefully weed free.
Now, much as it will break my heart to do it, when the June bearing plants flower this year, I will remove all of the blossom from them. I will also remove any runners. I want these plants to develop good strong root systems so that next year they will produce a huge crop of berries.
There is some consolation as we should get some berries from the day neutrals this year. I will remove the blossoms from them for the month of June and then after that I will allow them to flower and produce fruit.
These plants are all in raised beds which have been filled with a mixture of topsoil, compost and rotted manure. That is a recipe for weed seeds as you can see in this rhubarb bed which was transplanted about 10 days ago or so.
What I do is to allow that first flush of weeds to appear, clear them all off carefully, water the plants well and then apply a mulch.
I will do the rhubarb beds this week and then the strawberries in about 10 days or so. Naturally we will mulch the strawberries with straw. Not only will it help to suppress the weeds but it will keep the roots moist and it will keep the berries nice and clean.
Well that is it for me for today. Hope you have a wonderful weekend planned. Thanks so much for visiting today. Cheers.
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