Tuesday 10 May 2011

The sweetness of Strawberries

Ever tasted a home grown strawberry? The taste is somewhat different to shop bought berries, there's a sweetness that can only come from home grown organic produce, and they're so easy to grow.
Every year I tried and tried with strawberries. The possums ate them, the snails got to them,not enough sun, too dry, the possums ate them again! Then I extended an area of my garden and put in lots and lots of manure and compost. Then we planted five strawberry plants. I didn't want to purchase too many as they may have been eaten once again. I waited, the beautiful Melbourne rains returned, and my strawberries grew! Once the berries appeared I netted the small area to keep the possums at bay. This was successful and we started feasting regularly on the sweetest of berries. They were beautiful! I kept the water up to them, but no extra feeding was given. The plants slowly started to send out their runners and the strawberries eventually covered an area 1 metre by 1.5 metres. Beautiful,free plants.



Now comes the work. Many of the runners have planted their own roots into the ground. Some can remain here, while others will need to be moved as they are occupying the soft gravel pathway. Also, many of the plants still have runners attached to them. As it is now late autumn I will either cut these off and pot them up for spring, or many I will be sending off to my daughter's school for the 'gardening club' to use in their gardens. There are raspberry canes for them as well.

Once spring arrives I will be fertilizing this patch again and keeping my fingers crossed for a season of beautiful,organic strawberry treats.

No comments:

Post a Comment