The easiest way for me to protect the newly planted tomato and pepper plants is to put a "book" of straw over each plant. Slightly more labor is required to put a sheet of newsprint over the plants and to weight down the edges with dirt.
Within my memory, we have had a full bird-bath freeze solid on May 26 due to a late freeze.
If you are not complaining about the weather then you aren't really gardening.
Strawberries
I picked strawberries long before I grew them. Anybody who picks strawberries knows that the plants along the edge of the "mat" produce three times more heavily than the plants in the interior of the mat.
One characteristic of the mat of June-bearing strawberries is that the plants along the edges are not as close together while those in the middle are much more crowded.
I don't know if the difference happens when the flowering buds differentiate (August-September) or when the berries are filling out (June).
There is not much data on the optimum plant-spacing for June-bearing strawberries. My guess is that a usable number is in the range of two-per-square foot or about 8"-by-9" spacing. That implies that near the end of July, I will need to go through the strawberry planting and thin the heck out of them.
If anybody has information to share about the optimum plant density for June-bearing strawberries, I would love to hear it.
The new minivan is home
Mrs ERJ is walking on air. She is happy, happy, happy.
I am happy that she is happy.
Put me in, coach. I'm ready to play...
Mrs ERJ informed me that I get some special consideration after nursing Quicksilver back to health for two days and letting Mrs ERJ go batting about southern Michigan looking for her new minivan.
I suspect that I will be pushing a lawn mower, dragging hose, planting lilac bushes, grafting shellbark hickory scions....
I probably ought to write a list.
Miscellaneous pictures
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| The north end of the fenced-in garden. This will change dramatically over the next 60 days. The tall plants with yellow flowers are turnips that I let go to seed. |
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| Barn swallow nesting platforms in the middle of the barn roof. |
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| A tree frog who (thinks) he is wearing the cloak-of-invisibility. |
There are definitely more berries on the thinner strawberry plants but I know I get more from the more dense plants because the robins can't seem to get at them as well. The robins are the biggest problem I have with the strawberries. ---ken
ReplyDeleteNot much of a gardener, but I did plant two Japanese Cleyeras, two Hydrangeas and a Peach tree. Need two more of the Cleyeras. And the misses wants a couple more Hydrangeas.
ReplyDelete3/8 of an inch on the water last night.
ReplyDeleteJoe this advice may not fit your needs, but it sure worked in its time and place, SW Missouri, late forties, early fifties. Grew up on a semi commercial strawberry farm. Those June berries were the big crop. We planted rows about three feet apart with an eight to ten inch spacing in mld September. Covered with oat straw two to three inch before first frost. Did no expect to get much the first year. Mostly buried runners ever three to four days. Second year good crop. Third year, another good crop but had to work row from both sides. After last berries were off, used a sharpened flat shovel to cut row back to about ten inches wide. Continue until Murphy struck, repeat.
ReplyDeleteI struggle with strawberry root weevil. So I relocate my June berries each year. In my backyard garden it’s a 50 square foot bed with rows across the bed spaced one foot apart and four plants per row. So one plant per square foot. Strips of Landscape fabric between each row so very little weeding. 44 plants in a bed gave us 39 lbs two years ago.
ReplyDeleteOnce the berries are all picked the runners are directed to 50 pots for the next move. Once they’re planted in a new bed there’s nothing to do but water when needed and top dress with alfalfa meal on the Ides of March.
Thankfully the Lovely Wife inherited the berry picker gene and handles all that picking.
I had a chuckle at the tree frog pic. We get them in odd places too.cute little guys.
ReplyDeleteMy only experience with strawberries was I didn’t plant enough of them, and the chipmunks ate more berries than I did. After about 3 years the plants were poor looking and got pulled up and replaced with anothe crop.
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Here at 64 North, our earliest last frost was 30 April '78, latest was 1 July '71. We're a bit north of you, but sounds as if you can't plant tender stuff way earlier.
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