Operation Strawberry part one a success!
Oct. 5th, 2011 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
halifaxearthtech(Posted at Sep. 7th, 2011 06:55 pm)
Today I tackled the bed that has failed to become populated with strawberry runners. I was pleased to discover that the goutweed was not so thick as I had feared. Indeed it was not sufficient to cover the ground in its first year and most of those were annual weeds. In fact, some strawberry runners had managed to establish. I divided the bed into quarters and started on those section by section, to avoid laying bare the ground again without enouth time to cover it the same day. While I weeded, I had a hose running at a trickle to saturate the parched ground. While I was at it, I made a low swale out of the path, and filled it.
It was my plan to chop whole carpets of strawberries out of the strawberry row where I wanted to put keyhole paths, because we don't have full access into the row which is about 7 feet wide. Some of these displaced path strawberries would go in the new square patch, the rest on a rooftop garden, now that the drought has broken and it is better planting weather. To my delight the strawberries did come out in a whole sheet. After making sure they had good contact with the ground and watering them in well, I had a near instant strawberry garden.
I will link to pics soon as this is probably nearly impossible to picture without them. While I was working, the landlady came out and told me that since strawberries produce more heavily on their runners, it would make sense to use the paths when they fruit in July, then let the established plants runner into the path area in August, then in September cover the first plants with new paths to kill them. I will do more research to see if this is necessary.
Today I tackled the bed that has failed to become populated with strawberry runners. I was pleased to discover that the goutweed was not so thick as I had feared. Indeed it was not sufficient to cover the ground in its first year and most of those were annual weeds. In fact, some strawberry runners had managed to establish. I divided the bed into quarters and started on those section by section, to avoid laying bare the ground again without enouth time to cover it the same day. While I weeded, I had a hose running at a trickle to saturate the parched ground. While I was at it, I made a low swale out of the path, and filled it.
It was my plan to chop whole carpets of strawberries out of the strawberry row where I wanted to put keyhole paths, because we don't have full access into the row which is about 7 feet wide. Some of these displaced path strawberries would go in the new square patch, the rest on a rooftop garden, now that the drought has broken and it is better planting weather. To my delight the strawberries did come out in a whole sheet. After making sure they had good contact with the ground and watering them in well, I had a near instant strawberry garden.
I will link to pics soon as this is probably nearly impossible to picture without them. While I was working, the landlady came out and told me that since strawberries produce more heavily on their runners, it would make sense to use the paths when they fruit in July, then let the established plants runner into the path area in August, then in September cover the first plants with new paths to kill them. I will do more research to see if this is necessary.
