Fall Comes Quickly

This year we experienced a quick turn around. One day we experienced 30 degree weather and the next rain and 10 degrees. Theresa and I immediately looked at the calendar and saw work to be completed in the next few weeks. Our big project this fall was to completely uproot our patch of strawberries and reorganize them in some kind of order.

After we dug all the plants we divided them by age, discarding the old ones and carefully keeping the year old ones for replanting. Some of the plants had runners that stretched up to seven feet and some even to the neighbours yard. I then roto-tilled the earth and fertilized it with a mixture of sheep and cow manure. Another roto-tilling and we had a beautiful patch. Rows were dug and each plant covered to the correct level and tucked in. We left 16 inches between the rows and will be putting 4 inches of mulch there for weed control and a space to walk while picking the fruit.

We never really had an organized patch before as we just planted the dozen from the green house and let them grow and multiply. By the second year we had a mess. Hopefully this time we did it right and the plants will reward us for giving them some organized breathing room. My back was sore after the job was completed but I felt good to see the plants all in rows, something like back at school with the kids all orderly in those old seating arrangements.