The Potager

The Potager

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Early August Happenings in the Garden

That header shot of the Potager is several years old. This is how it looks now. Some of my zucchini and squash have succumbed to the squash bug and are gone.  Weeds are taking over my path. I need to fix that soon. The kale is gone and I pulled out the bush beans. The Tomatoes and peppers, both sweet and hot,  are producing well, as are cucumbers. We are still getting beets, green beans and kale.
I planted peas and carrots for the fall this weekend. It was perfect weather for that.
Then I reworked the strawberry beds.
I was a bit disappointed with my June Bearing strawberries this year. Even though I had thinned out the plants last year, the yield was not great and many of the berries were quite small. The larger berries in the photo above were the ever bearing berries.
Even the ever bearing bed was a mess, matted plants. They were acting like June bearing plants, only making one rush of berries and then they were done. I knew something had to be done. I decided to restart the June bearing bed and simply thin out the ever bearing bed.
Last month I had put pots of dirt under several runners from the June bearing bed.
Once they were firmly rooted, I cut them away from the mother plants and hubby pulled all the old strawberry plants out of that bed. We composted them. Strawberries only bear for 5 years and all my beds are older than that.
I am going to move the little plants to a new bed in late August.
I pulled out most of the ever bearing strawberry plants, and then mulched the bed with a compost and manure mix.
They seem much happier now. I hope they show that by giving me large juicy berries next spring!

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