O Lord, Jacks strawberry bed had really gone to shit. Any of you planting strawberries beware of the trouble they bring.Only 12 months after planting two neat rows, surrounded by chives as companion plants, jacks strawberry patch had been reduced to this;
 |
| where to begin? |
Anyway we got stuck in. Most of the carnage was caused by runners from the original plants galloping everywhere and setting up new colonies of plants anywhere there was space. Then of course lots of weeds got stuck in between this strawberry jungle so they had to be whipped out too. The row we had planted through black plastic were that bit much easier to clear lending a bit of credence to those who say plant them through plastic or not at all. After a solid hours work things had vastly improved;
 |
| a sigh or relief ! back to normal ! |
This is a good time to tackle overgrown areas before strong new growth gets underway. Leave it a month and it will be twice as hard. After all your hard work, especially if its to straighten out strawberries, be ruthless and cut off all runners(unless you need to keep some new ones) as you spot them. Never walk past the bed without a secatuers in hand. And if you do need new plants allow only two runners per plant and one plant per runner-that should be more than enough. This variety are cambridge favourite by the way, they are delicious but the bloody blackbirds think so too so have netting and use it as soon as they start to form fruit.
No comments:
Post a Comment