It has been a mix of precipitation sorts interrupted by varying degrees of dryness. Plantlets at home were beginning to overstay their welcome. They were growing to almost leggy lengths, the Zuider Zee winds were whipping them about, bringing some of them to a severely weakened state. They had to be brought in, then carried back out. That all got a bit annoying. The beetroot, toms and Swiss chard all lodged complaints of maltreatment and expressing the will to be set free. Like all youngsters, they wanted to cut the apron-strings and make their own way in the big wide world. Sigh. It took us a couple of days to transport them all to the allotment, clean the beds, make planting drills and set them into their new homes. The greenhouse was yet another thing— it had to be weeded again, the soil mix and exchange had already been done, so, it was only a matter of digging the angulated horizontal trenches to lie them in. We also had to replace some aged Tonkin support sticks. Additionally, the protective layers of white fleece had to come off the strawberries and be dried and put away. Now then, while we are on the subject of strawbs, I will show a couple of related pics. To begin with, some of the fleece panels hanging around like laundry: The re-exposed beds, looking no worse for the ware: Let me show you these gigantic flowers of the Strawberry ‘Verdi’, seen just above in the lower lefthand corner of the foto: The other patch of the ole standby, ‘Daroyal’ : The Daroyal are smaller, but not small. They are also heavy producers. I may place a cage around at least one strawb patch to see if it will help keeping the voles out. Toms…ah yes, one of my two “can’t-do-without” veggies. Here they are, denuded and all tucked-in, with only the top or three leaves left sticking out: Then, ladies and gentlemen— the ‘SugarBon’ (a type of Sugar Snap), are finally ready to be man-handled into the waiting rills. …but mateys, we were not through with these guys— they also needed a rack for them to climb up on. …and the final touch—a little pen dug-in around the perimeter. Hopefully to discourage the ravenous little voles. Well, I know you are yawning by now, but there is just one more thing that needed to be done, we had to part the mulch layer like Musa and the Red Sea to make a place for the Swiss chard. With that overview-like foto above at the beginning of the strawberry segment you can see that about half of the mulched quadrants have been planted, so we are on our way. Everyone has been planted and they have to do the rest themselves now. Farewell, little guys.
Nice description read with humor of course in your post. Such neat perfect rows in your beautifully crafted garden.
Netty— Thank you so much. Coming from you, I see your words as a humbling compliment. Clay— Great minds, eh? Pac— I am so pleased that you appreciate my update posting (weak humour and all). Your kind words are so wonderful to hear.
Your garden skills deserve notice… exceptional techniques… your garden is always beautiful, exciting and full of pics worthy of magazines.
Fearing your garden diaries always gives me joy and peace. The strawberries are my favorites. May they be productive as well as beautiful and delicious. Chapeau. Edit - that first word should be "reading". My typing is terrible!
Looks wonderful Sjoerd. I love how you part the seas and have this beautiful rich soil hiding underneath. Interesting how large the flowers are on the strawberry. I'm trying vole fencing this time as well. Anything has to help I think. I'm hoping to find something more like yours in town on Wednesday for the back of my lower garden. Apparently, in Canada for our variety of greedy goblins, 1/4 inch keeps out voles, and 1/2 inch keeps out chipmunks. When I eyeballed the size of the hole in my birdfeeder that a chipmunk fit into last year, I'm sticking with 1/4 inch for everyone. You're much ahead of me on the planting in. Your tomatoes will be very happy to have their home. Did you decide to not use garden soil this year to try and avoid the cutworms? I remember you mentioning it last year. It all looks so beautiful. I'm living vicariously through your lovey garden.
Cheers Mel. After the biblical ground action, the number of worms that went scurrying was amazing. I hope the fencing will work well for you. It is a bit of a headache digging it in. In the end I used the garden soil mixed in once again. It came from a different quadrant this year, so maybe there will be fewer or no cutworms. I am nervous. Until now is there no damage but the memory of last what happened last year is still painfully present. Yeah, I am nervous. I hope things there will soon warm-up for you, cuz you’ve got plans.
I'm really hoping to find taller fencing in town tomorrow, or the city in a couple of weeks. What I could order is 18 inches, and with needing to bury a minimum of 6 inches and have a min of 12 above, it doesn't leave much wiggle room. I did read that I could bury metal flashing or extend it with metal flashing - so I may try that. I could only get 50 ft of this 1/4 inch fencing, so my hope would be to find a large enough roll to surround the lower veggies Vole Fest location. We will have to keep each other updated on our Vole Fence Out program. I'm optimistic about your greenhouse. That was one year out of so many successes. I can understand your worry - so much work and care to have one little worm be so destructive. Maybe you and your bride got them all last year and they got the message. ;-) No worms allowed.
Mel good luck on your fencing out voles. I hope you find the materials you need and can protect your garden. So far no voles and that is because I am keeping the pasture grass down to 1/2” and mowing every couple of days. No gophers yet. Usually they are everywhere by now.
@Sjoerd in the Tomato pic is that a watering system using plastic bottles ? I've seen videos of such wondering how they work out.
Mel, we will certainly keep in touch about the vole defences. Clay, those inverted plastic bottles are indeed for watering the plants. The bottles are placed directly above the root ball. So then, the deep roots get the water and the superficial feeding roots that form along the stripped stem. To be clear, the cap is off the bottles which face downwards. I simply cut the bottoms off…and Bob’s yer uncle.
