Transplanting strawberries

When I was about twelve, Mum and Dad bought a small berry farm in our home town and I recall many asummer's day picking strawberries, loganberries, boysenberries and raspberries! Picking strawberries is especially backbreaking. But, I absolutely love strawberries, they are one of my favourite fruits. Did you know they are part of the Rose family (Rosaceae)?

We have some in hanging baskets, one of which has continued to fruit over the winter months, which is amazing! Strawberries tend to put out runners each year and the main plants can last up to three years before you need to replace them, although the fruit gets smaller with each year. I transplant them each year and have enough now to do just that this time around, which is great!

It's really easy to transplant strawberries. Usually you would do this towards the end of winter (particularly in Perth's climate) as the plants are usually dormant in the cold weather.

Pull apart plants and remove old leaves and dirt from roots.

First, dig out the clump of strawberries plants and gently pull each plant away from the others and remove the dirt from the roots by swishing in a bucket of water. You can add a very small amount of seaweed solution to the water (but no more than a capful). If the roots are especially long, trim them with a sharp knife or secaters.

Next, pull away the outer leaves (those that come away easily is usually enough) so that you have about four left on the plant.

Now you are ready to plant! Strawberries are susceptible to mould and mildew so it's a good idea to plant them in a sunny, well drained position. You can create a mound of soil on which to plant your strawberries to increase the airflow and drainage around the plants. Some gardeners use black plastic to stop weeds from crowding the plants - we did as our berry farm was a commercial operation, which also housed trickle irrigation to minimise mould and mildew. For the home gardener, mulch does just as good a job (and doesn't fry your soil either).

Make sure your soil is beefed up with good compost and blood and bone, and add some rock dust too if you can get some. Strawberries like a slightly acidic soil.

Space plants for good airflow and apply a good layer of mulch.

Finally, to plant, simply make a hole with your trowel handle large enough to ensure the roots have plenty of wriggle room and drop in your plants. Cover to the small crown and firm down the soil. Water in well and apply a good layer of mulch (this helps to keep your fruit clean too).

You should check your plants daily for the first couple of weeks just in case some don't take. Replace these with other plants. Keep them watered regularly.

Water in well with a weak seaweed solution.

If you want a decent strawberry crop, you probably need at least ten plants minimum. We have three hanging baskets plus a planter box. Baskets and planters are also a good way to minimise snails and slugs if they are a problem in your garden - they LOVE strawberries!

If you are into companion planting, lupins, beans and borage are good helpers for strawberries as they feed the soil and attract pedatory and pollinating insects such as bees and wasps.

Happy gardening!

Spring plantings and seedlings

We had a very productive day in the garden today - the first in a little while in fact. Firstly, Alfie and I went to the gardening shop to pick up some seedlings, particularly capsicum and basil, the purple kind too. We found some nice looking yellow button squash too while we were there. After our last zucchini effort though, I'm a little sceptical about squash, but willing to give them another go.

Capsicum and purple basil seedlings.

Also got some aged manure and sugar cane mulch and dosed the garden up, including the lovely looking tomatoes that came up from the compost - I just love these sort of visitors :o)

The lemon and lime also got a dose, plus the olive trees, papaya and guava. The lime and lemon got a good prune too - both have a number of flowers as well, so here's hoping for some fruit this year - although may still be a bit young, but we will see.

Simon also made a narrow bed on the outside of our boundary (to the vacant lot behind us) and transplanted some tomatoes and put in some of the purple basil seedlings as companions. He also popped a couple of the yellow button squash in the middle just to see how they go.

Boundary garden bed with tomatoes, basil and yellow button squash.

Now all we need is to monitor for bugs and nasties, and, more importantly, water regularly!

Happy gardening!

Autumn plantings

Clancy and I planted some Autumn vegie seeds this week.

We started with seeds from our Okra plant. Clancy potted them by herself and we are hoping to see some green shoots in the next week or so! We are experimenting to see how/if the Okra grow well this time of year - they seem fast growing and produce lovely lady's fingers so hoping they will be a good quick Autumn crop amongst the longer term vegies.



Next we planted some dwarf peas together with turnips - good companions apparently. The peas have already surfaced - a sign that the warmth is still around! The turnip seeds are much like caulie seeds so we mixed them with some sand to spread them evenly in the bed (especially as it is a no-dig bed).





Then we planted out a line of baby beetroot. They too have sprung up quickly. The trick I've found with beetroot (and carrots too) is to keep the water on them in the early stages so they continue to mature at a consistent rate (as we noted back in October last year). We also put in two lines of baby carrots. Again we will see how they fair this time of year - they seem to handle the cool a bit as long as they get a bit of a warm start I reckon.

Now to the beans - we did in fact plant out some dwarf beans as we've done previously, so we haven't yet got the cubby concept going! May as well use what we have to start with! We planted out the beans into pots and put these around the garden bed and the sandpit for a bit of greenery. No doubt once they start producing the kids will be picking and eating them like nothing else! Just the ticket :o)

Now the weather is cooler, we've been refreshing our potted plants. I repotted a fig into a larger pot and topped up the herbs with a bit of fresh potting mix and blended manure.

Ah, Autumn, I just love this time of year!

Happy gardening!

Is crop rotation feasible?

Although we only have one long garden bed, I wonder if we can still apply the crop rotation principles and not plant in same area twice in a row? Might be worth experimenting with anyhow.

I like the overview provided on the Gardening Australia website - ideal for four garden beds if you have such a set up. We also tried to rotate our beds when in Canberra, so will revisit some ideas from our successes (and failures!) there. This guide from Harvest to Table is also useful (and mentions that no garden is too small for crop rotation!).

Companion planting is also a good method for gardening and this guide is a good overview if you are interested in trying out the method, as is this guide.

More on that later; until then, happy gardening!