Too Many Strawberries

On a sunny day the fragrance of ripe strawberries growing in the garden tantalises the taste buds. The pleasure of biting into a sweet, sun-warmed strawberry is far superior biting into one from the supermarket. With this in mind, I ordered 36 strawberry plants, 6 each of 6  varieties, which should provide fruit from April to September.

I'm an optimistic organic gardener, who always imagines bumper rewards from my small fruit and vegetable plots, some of which are in the front garden, some and in the back garden as well as those in pots. However, after I placed my order I panicked. Where would I find the space to plant them?

I decided to pot up the twelve plants which fruit earliest in the year and put them in the greenhouse where I will pollinate them with a paint brush.  The remainder should thrive in plant troughs.

If I plant all of them in John Innes Number 3 compost I should have plenty of fruit for the next three years which will repay me for my investment. Hopefully, not only will I have fresh strawberries to eat, I will also  have enough to make jam and, maybe, cordial.

Indian Summer

It is a glorious October day here in S.E. England, so I've taken advantage of the blue sky and sunshine to clean my greenhouse.

The greenhouse had to be moved because the outside of my house is being cladded. Now, I'm replacing the staging and the plants. I've already  moved my patio nectarine tree and my potted herbs inside and I'm ready to sow winter salad and broad beans.

Friendly Robin

Every time I go out into my organic garden a little robin appears. He has become so friendly that he perches only two feet away from me and watches every move I make. If I leave a watering can, the garden frame on which I kneel or even an pile of earth, when I return he is perched on one of them.

This morning, I left the greenhouse door open while I had a cup of rooibos tea. When I returned he was in the greenhouse. However, when he saw me coming in he panicked and stayed in mid air fluttering his wings to maintain his position.

I stepped out. He flew away but returned a few minutes later to see what I was doing.