It's been a while since we have done any work on the allotment but as we start to creep towards Spring we need to crack on and start preparing for earth for planting.
While the girls tackled last years squash patch (making it their own with yet another scarecrow!), Marcus and I set to work increasing the size of our strawberry patch.
Using the 'art of guestimation' Marcus reckons that we now have somewhere in the region of 500 strawberry plants.
Emerging through the damp, brown leaves and the moulding straw of last summer are the first signs of an even more plentiful crop. Strawberry plants are fabulously easy to grow and maintain. They multiply by sending out runners to look for a new space, then they simply snuggle down and grow into a new plant.
Marcus turned the earth so that the bed now goes right the way up to the fence. And I dug up the plants, that had settled themselves between the rows, and then simply popped them back into the ground a bit further along. Easy, peasy!
We managed to complete about half the job before the girls lost interest in their task, had consumed the last of the rock cakes and started niggle at each other. Time to head for home!
Our strawberries didn't do very well last year but we got so many raspberries we could freeze a load. Do you put straw under your strawberries? Ours just got totally munched by slugs.
ReplyDeleteHi Lizzy, Yes we do put plenty of straw under them. The girls have great fun making little nests for the plants and it does seem to keep the slugs at bay. We do the same with our squash patch. X
Delete