Thursday 5 November 2020

Strawberries.



I'm very fond of Strawberries; not those bloody tasteless things that come from hundreds of acres of greenhouses in Spain, but pukka sunshine-kissed beauties from the garden.

I've just potted-up 30 new plants of a variety called 'Gariguette'; sweet and delicious with a hint of perfectly ripe wild strawberries about them. Personally I would say they are the best variety around, but then I would.

My other Strawberry plants are in old wheelbarrows, but these I think I'll plant out directly into the soil. They will need slug pellets, and anti-bird netting, but I think they'll be fine. 

If anyone has any innovative hints, I would be very happy to receive them. 

I'm hoping for a really good 2021 crop. God willing.

 

23 comments:

  1. When is your strawberry season? We get them fresh and ripe in April and May. I love the wheelbarrow idea. The sight would be aesthetically pleasing , green and pretty. A sight for site eyes, which mine are when green turns to brown. Our holey, rusty old wheelbarrow is empty at the moment. I may fill it with lettuces till it's strawberry time

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    1. I suppose ours start in May. I did have two old wheelbarrows filled with plants, but one collapsed. These new plants will have to go in a row in the soil. I think I'll use plastic with holes. I still haven't consulted Google.

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    2. Plastic with holes never worked in my garden. It made slugs worse, and the voles and mice slipped under the plastic to nibble them at the base of the stem and then pull the whole plant under the plastic. We have a raised bed, but...it was a crap year for strawberries at our house. We tuck ours in with a good layer of straw at years end. Our entire garden is fenced, which might make a difference though.

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    3. Thanks for that Debby. Actually, my main concern with the plastic was with moisture. We have little enough rain, so the roots being beneath plastic doesn't sound ideal.

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  2. At the first moment I thought: "Eating strawberries in November?!?" - then I saw my mistake.
    In my big garden I took an advice of Vita Sackville-West and painted a wheel (difficulties in language her: the wheel of a wheelbarrow) deep lacquered cherry-red - then put it onto a bed and planted into each segment another kitchen herb - it looked lovely!

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    1. It's the best thing to do with old Wheelbarrows. They always look nice with things growing in them.

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  3. Here the berries are more rain than sun kissed. I do enjoy strawberries but if I make a pig of myself my feet swell. Very strange. We have plenty of wild ones and Laing down the road produce good ones. Imported always seem either woody or tasteless, usually both.

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    Replies
    1. I hope that after Brexit, those tasteless red things that come from Spain will be banned.

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  4. Next spring pop cardboard collars around each plant, I find it much better than straw. I plant mine in a raised bed so the fruit can fall over the side, less chance of being nibbled.

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    1. Cardboard collars sound good. I suppose our Wheelbarrow is a sort of raised bed... it always produces good nibble-free fruit.

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  5. I don't have any tips about growing them (I leave that to Paul), I just like to eat them!

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    1. I tend to eat them when I'm at Haddock's. I just tell Lady M 'it's been a bad year'.

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  6. I’m with Sue ..... no tips worth having from me but I love eating them especially those little tiny wild strawberries. Good luck with them. XXXX

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    1. We have wild Strawberries everywhere here, and that flavour when they are perfectly rips, is wonderful.

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    2. My typing/spelling is getting worse and worse.

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  7. All I can remember about mum's strawberry bed was that they were strawed up at the beginning of winter. This year I found the best strawberries for flavour on sale here were those grown in Scotland. All the rest were tasteless.

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    1. Scotland has a great reputation for both Strawberries and Raspberries. Never buy Spanish ones!

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  8. I don't know their origin but the best strawberries I have ever eaten, well since childhood, were bought in Germany and Austria.

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  9. Most of the grocery store fruit is tasteless. How do growers manage to produce fruit with no taste? They all seem to have mastered the skill. I have one farm that grows strawberries and blueberries and they are flavorful and delicious.

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    1. We always say that about Tomatoes. How do they manage to make them so completely tasteless? Our home grown ones are full of flavour!

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  10. The best large strawberries I ever ate here in Southern California were Sequoia. I suspect the special loving care given the large commercial garden by the Japanese couple who raised them (before he had a stroke) may have had some influence on how they developed ever so deliciously tasty and sweet.

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