To the right of the polytunnel doors sit the old truck tyres that last year held the majority of our strawberry plants, along with a few more plants in the tall zinc planter next to the tyres.
They cropped well in this position, the warmth of the rubber tyres and the shelter of the polytunnel giving them a head start and much needed protection from the wind, they gave us enough to add to the other fruits we had growing, but in such a small space not enough for bowls of fruit or to make jam with. So I knew we needed many more plants and much more room for them to grow hence the two new beds we set in place over the weekend and that I posted about here.
At the end of the fruit producing season the plants were pretty much abandoned and left to their own devices, however one thing I did do was to put in place lots of little compost filled pots that I could peg the newly emerging runners into. So this year we will have lots more strawberries and all at no extra cost to us.
Today saw me tidying up this mess, clearing, trimming and snipping the new plants from the few parent plants that were in the tyres ...
... and rather amazingly I now have over 70 strawberry plants to move into the new beds at the other end of the tunnels.
And the front of the polytunnel looks a lot neater :-)
This year these tyres will be holding some carrots, and the zinc planter already has some Jerusalem Artichokes in it.
Sue xx
I just love how strawberries do that! And 70 new plants - fantastic. Love your polytunnel. I hope to have one very soon.
ReplyDeleteWonderful! Here, unless organically grown, our strawberries are chemically sprayed. I end up with the frozen organic berries from Aldi most of the time and miss fresh ones...Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteYes you are back...a little now and then? Made my day to read a post. Greetings from a gardener in the US.
ReplyDeleteNothing tastes quite like home grown strawberries does it.
ReplyDeleteYou are going to have lots of strawberries this year.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Oh my! Seventy plants, you are going to be the Jam-Making Queen - after gorging on fresh berries and cream, of course!! Lovely to have you blogging again Sue. You're an inspiration. thank you
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Virginia. You are an inspiration Sue.
DeleteThere are so many ideas and tips that I have collected from your posts.
Today I was thinking it would soon be salad time and remembered your very good tip of putting a piece of kitchen roll into a bag of salad leaves, sealing the bag and tipping it to let the water drain down on to the paper to keep the salad fresh. Sue