Strawberries

[RWS]

Last year I picked up a 6 pack of strawberries fom Homelsss Depot.  It was late for planting strawberries but what the heck.  I had one plant lef ofer so I put it in one of the wife's flower pots.  We got a few strawberries bu the deer ate the tops of on a couple of occasions. The one I planted in the flower pot did well and is now putting out runners.  It is having babies!  So we are panning on building a dedicated 12ft by 3 or 4 foot boxed in garden box for this years crop.  Transplanting of strawberries here takes place in December.  I plan to make a screened top to go over the box to keep out the deer and the birds.  The rain should go right thru the screen wire.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=how+to+make+strawberry+bed&iax=images&ia=images
You can see in the attached picture I set additional flower pots around the main plant so the smell plants can get their roots in the soil.  I will cut the runners off just before transplanting ??

[ProGeek]

I got 25 from eburges. About half survived and 3 are putting out lots of suckers.

[RWS]

I got 25 from eburges. About half survived and 3 are putting out lots of suckers.

Plant your runners in December.  Cover with mulch for the winter.  Throw away the mother plant.  Move to a new row in the garden each year.

When I was a young teen, I stayed with my grandfather and grandmother during the Summer.  They had a 32 acre farm.  Each year late Summer/Fall my grandfather would plow and bank up a row near the old strawberry row.  We the grandchildren would move the runners to the new row.  Pop would plow under the old row.  New strawberries were mulched in good for the Winter.  I guess you would still do the same today.

[RWS]

I got 25 from eburges. About half survived and 3 are putting out lots of suckers.

Keep them watered well to induce runners.

[RWS]

I visited Abigayle and hubbie the other day.  While there I just had to look over her gardens.  I was particularly interested in how they constructed their raised bed gardens.  They used concrete blocks made to hold the side boards, so I got online and found a great video showing this type construction.



https://www.homedepot.com/p/Oldcastle-7-5-in-x-7-5-in-x-5-5-in-Tan-Brown-Planter-Wall-Block-16202336/206501693

I am planning my new strawberry raised bed and may do a second for tumeric.

[Abigayle]

We did ours three high and added an L on the right of the greenhouse and a reverse on the left side.  It is amazing how much food we can raise in those!  We also have three large gardens, two fenced and one mostly for corn, to have enough to put up for the year.d
We are going to put the six biggest chickens in one garden to see If we can keep them fenced in there for the day, and put them up at night.  They can pick away at anything that comes up, eat bugs and be chickens.  Can't turn them loose in the yard right now, due to all the new pine straw.  I miss watching them out there.  The other eleven have lots of room, but I am sure they would love to roam.  They are a little too small at this point.  The ten ducks are still alive and well. They have a reprieve, due to time restraints right now.  They will probably taste like rubber by the time we get around to them with the storm coming...

[RWS]

So I had to locate a spot to build a strawberry box.  I chose the East side of my shop in line with a row of blueberries.  I had an old boxed in bed there years ago and there is an abandoned waterline underneath.  I found the garden blocks at Homeless Depot.

[RWS]

I dug down and found the old water line.  Then I used a steel rod and poked around and found the old cut off valve box.  It was buried.  I had put it in a metal box thinking I could locate it with a metal detector.  I ordered a freeze proof valve from Homeless Depot online and got the corner blocks and lumber there also. 
Pic 1 is before Sally
Pic 2 is after Sally
Pic 3 is cut off valve & box

[RWS]

It is almost done.  I put in 6 bags of brown mulch then put in the dirt from the grass I had dug up.  I am going to let it set a few days before I stir it up and add more dirt and mulch.  Next I will try and build a screened in top to keep out deer and birds. 

Time to take a break and go camping......

[RWS]

Well,  I built a wire cage over the boxed in bed.  I put legs on it so I could add Tumeric later.  There are 2 rows of lettuce and 1 row of spinach.  I saved enough room  to plant the strawberries.  They will fill the box up.  Now maybe when I come home from my next camping trip I will have some spinach. 

Now I have a frame to drape a tarp over in cold weather to keep the frost off.

[8greenbeans]

Abigayle, for those older chickens, just pressure cook/can them. They will be nice and tender that way!

[Abigayle]

8 Green Beans, I have a recipe for Asian Chicken Thighs for the canner, it is one of our favorites.  When you can them, do you leave the bone in for a better broth or are they boneless?  The above recipe calls for boneless but the bone broth would be a nice extra.  We sold our two year old hens.  Now we have five month old roosters along with four month old hens and roosters.  We need to thin out the boys.  I keep watching for nasty guys, so far they are all well behaved.  After we finish covering some of the gardens this week, the roosters should be next for the canning.  The extra male duck, the little guy, shall remain as a pet.  We made the mistake of naming him and he just begs for amnesty.Ferdinand remains, unless I harden up a little. 

[Abigayle]

R.W.S.  Good job! I like the way you turned it into a multi-purpose bed.  We use abc for our support on the chicken tractor and plan to cut some pieces to cover the raised beds that you saw when you were here.  We have winter fabric, that we buy at the end of the season sales from Gardeners Supply. I watched my emails and got it at a time they had free shipping.  We have stored it.  I bet with all the new gardeners out there, deals will not be had.  Also hope that everyone has all the seed they need for next spring, because.....we just don't know...  By the way, our watering system to the beds, look much like yours.  We also have them on timers and they are run off our well.  We had one go bad, perhaps a bad battery, it is fine now, but it did put water on the ground, near the potting shed, when we also store our feed.  It runs downhill a little.  We also get tunnels under the soil in the raised beds and have been thinking about something we could put on a drill, to stir it up this spring.  There is always a pitchfork, but always trying to think of ways to make light of some of this work.

[RWS]

I finally planted the strawberries for next Spring harvest.  That fills up the 4x8 boxed in bed,  I now have leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, spinach and strawberries.   Once they fill out a bit the bed will be full.

[RWS]

Well, the lettuce is gone but the strawberries are blooming so it won't be long now!