We used to have lots of strawberries and so I extended the bed for even more, because everyone loves strawberries. Then, the mice found them and started eating them while they were still green. I tried putting down traps for the mice and it worked a bit, but killing mice didn’t seem like the nicest of things to be doing. I then covered them in netting and made sure there were no gaps at the edges. This worked well until the strawberry plants hit the netting and couldn’t grow any more. So I dug down and made the bed lower so that the plants would have room, but even though I added compost into the holes it didn’t really work, too much subsoil. This year I left them, see what would happen. I watered them of course but then it decided not to rain for months and months, so much so that even the government felt they needed to send everyone in the UK an alert to tell them it was hot. The strawberries then had no chance.

We were at the garden centre the other week and we spotted strawberry plants on sale for something like £1 per plant which seemed like a good price and so bought six of them. I’ve been waiting for a time to plant them out but wanted to wait until the end of the drought and when it has rained a bit. It seems it won’t rain again until the end of October (the internet told me and so I immediately believed it…) so even if it does or doesn’t, it will soon be too late if I leave it. I was also prompted by the crazy antics of the local foxes who, after the solar eclipse, managed to rip open and play with bags of compost sitting on the drive. After I had clear it all up and put the remains of the bags back, it felt like I needed to use said compost before the foxes came back to play again. I’ve put out four of the plants in a small subsection of the whole strawberry bed (which is empty mostly) and will expand this year on year.

Meanwhile, I watered the plot and weeded. I also came home with apples and small potatoes, I’ve still got three rows left to dig up).