Who’s Eating the Strawberries?
It is not us as these are wild strawberries and I don’t find them too nice to eat (although you can, they are very small and sweet and a strange texture). Something has been eating them and their leaves.
June 17, 2008
June 4, 2008
@Seven Weeks - Wild Strawberries
A small number of little red strawberries. I did try tasting one and although not unpleasent, it wasn’t that tasty either, but then they are not really meant to be eaten.
Related:
May 13, 2008
@Four Weeks
So much going on and so little time to do things! I have added a whole load of extra things this week, so comments are with the photos. It has been sun sun sun, hot hot hot all week, which has meant lots of watering although only on the small things. Everything else has to take their chance, including the new grass seed in the front garden which is a bit of a pity. I have watered it a couple of times, but it will come up eventually and if it doesn’t then a top up on Autumn will do the job I am sure.
Beans - only planted them a couple of days ago so no show as yet:
Rhubarb - needs picking, we have made some pies from it already:
Tayberry - this is a new one this week. One of the fruit bushes that we got reduced from Woolworths and it seems to have taken and has new growth on it:
Wild Strawberries - some nice little flowers and some small green strawberries starting to show. That and the two plants are now multiplying like it is going out of business:
Blackcurrents - this is the third or fourth year (I forget) and this year the bush never got pruned and so it is really looked after itself. Mind you, a good growth of flowers appearing:
Sunflowers - the ones that started it all. These are no four weeks old and no more slug problems after using pellets. They are well on their way outside while a couple more are just starting to show inside (to replace the slug eaten ones) as well as two planted directly outside showing now too:
Potatoes - I managed to get a couple more off freecycle, so now we have four seed potatoes in the pot. The existing ones the growth was about an inch above the soil, so I have now topped it up with more soil. The next time I have to do this, it will be at the top:
Grass - don’t be fooled by the photo, it is actually quite patchy and the hot sunny weather has not helped at all. Mind you, it does look like it is meant to be there and from a distance is a nice carpet of green. It is meant to rain tomorrow:
Tomatoes: now repotted and outside:
Chillies - now repotted outside. The stones are to keep them upright:
Clematis is growing very well, about an inch or more per day. It will soon be up to the wire and off along the fence:
Amaranthus - I really need to read up on what to do with these:
Basil - growing nicely and time to repot them I think:
Cress - more luck this second time and half of it eaten, yum:
Mini Sunflowers - ready to plant outside:
Sweetpeas - every single seed seems to have done something which is fantastic:
Salad - still growing but very slowly, and little bits of it dieing too, not doing too well. I think we will put some seed outside at sometime:
Related:
April 23, 2008
@8 Months - Wild Strawberries
Since planting four wild strawberry plants back in August (see wild-strawberries-are-planted) it is time to see how they have been doing. I had huge problems with cats (mostly our cat!) digging in the new soil and through this we lost two of the four plants. I soon covered them with some wire mesh to stop the cat, and it worked.
The remaining two plants have multiplied and there are now two main plants and around four smaller plants coming off. So they seem to be spreading as advertised, which is great. They were planted in a space or pretty pour soil, very clay like, not very deeps, full of stones and weeds. I topped it all up with the results of the worm composter and have have been keeping an eye on the weeds.
Related:
August 22, 2007
Wild Strawberries are planted
Strawberries are so nice and so easy to grow, I don’t know why it has taken this long to actually get some for the garden. Actually, I have tried and did have some plants on our allotment when we had it, and was going to plant some in pots this year but never got round to it. So reading up on Wild Strawberries the other week was quite interesting, firstly because I never knew there was such a thing, and secondly because they can be planted really anytime in the year and their aim is to spread all over the place and produce small very sweet fruits. Ideal then I thought for the side of the driveway in the front garden that is currently all stones and weeds and is really such a pain to know what to do with.
So, off to ebay and I bought four plants which I planed to put in the poor soil on the side of the driveway and over the years they would spread quite well, and at the same time look nice with their flowers and fruit, invite wildlife, and of course give us the odd wild strawberry to eat. This has to be something mainly for ground cover and not for food as I don’ think they will produce that much, and what they do produce may well be very sweet and nice, but also small too. So one for the wildlife with the odd one for us as we pass, next year I will try to find time once again to plant some eating ones.
Today, the plants arrived, in an envelope wrapped in newspaper and in plastic bags so that they were still quite moist. Even though it was getting dark, and it was raining, I thought I would plant them out tonight. I was just going to remove the weeds and dig the bed over until I soon found out that it was really just 5 or 6 inches of soil and then mainly stones! Instead, I used some of the compost that we have been making since we moved here and two big bucket loads did it (another one will be needed too I think to go round the Rhubarb when we have picked it). The compost was black and crumbly and all nice and smelt all earthy, really good going seeing as we don’t really do much with the composter. I made small holes, filled a bit with potting compost and put the plants in. Let’s see how it goes…..
