Wednesday 27 May 2009

First punnet of strawberries...

Having found several strawberries scattered or half eaten last Friday, we covered the bed in a double layer of netting and were rewarded yesterday with our first punnet of strawberries! One or two had been nibbled by snails (which seemed to be strangling themselves trying to get out again through the holes). However, most were pristine and, after the warm sunshine over the weekend, followed by lots of rain overnight on Monday, of very good eating quality. We enjoyed them for lunch with a little sugar (unnecessary but nice) and cream - delicious!
Planted out my second batch of sweetcorn yesterday, together with squash plants. The sweetcorn plants I laid out a fortnight ago are already six inches tall, the newbies only two, it will be interesting to see if they catch up!
Tomato plants seem to have settled in well - they looked a bit unhappy at the end of last week - not wilting but not really enjoying the long dry spell, and particularly I guess the cold winds of the week before. I gave them a good soaking and had a long chat with George about them, which you might think went over the top of their heads. But they were looking a lot better for the attention and, perhaps, the intervening weather!

5 comments:

Maureen said...

Ooohh how I envy you! my strawberries aren't ready yet, but I have lots coming.
I spent three and half hours late afternoon/evening on my plot today and in between showers I got a lot done. I went to Wyevale G/C yesterday and they had 75% off lots of things. I can't resist a bargain, so bought some Bolloti beans (never grown them before) and some pak choi ( not grown these either) all for silly money, so worth a try and not worth buying the seeds when the plants were a bargain.
Enjoy your next lot of strawberries.

Jo said...

I picked our first strawberry on Sunday. I didn't get to taste it though, my daughter is chief strawberry tester!
There's lots more just ripening now so hopefully I should get my first taste this week.

Two Allotment Gardenistas said...

I just had the first strawberry today! May follow your lead and cover the rest with netting as it looks like a bumper crop this year. Would be a shame to loose it all to birds and snails!

Jo Christie-Smith said...

Did you grow your sweetcorn from seed or buy it from a garden centre?

Scattered Gardener said...

Thanks for your comments. Maureen, good luck with your borlottis, I tried to grow them years ago but had no success (probably didn't water them enough).
Jo, hope you've had a straw or two by now. Jo C-S - I grew them from seed on the windowsill then greenhouse. I planted some direct into the ground on last Thursday (4/6), the ground was really warm and I'm hoping the cold weather over the weekend hasn't rotted them. Fingers crossed!