I finally got it together to start the strawberry beds on the walls (remember the Strawberry Plan?) and I'm quite pleased with the results :-) Proud to say I managed to do it all myself - from cutting the gutters (disastrous!) to drilling the walls (a little more successfully!), etc.
This was inspired by our trip to Stellenbosch on Friday. The strawberry farms already have red berries by the thousand (granted they're growing in tunnels!). I've noticed they're getting a little less ridiculously priced at woolies (they're still darn expensive, even if someone else is paying) and there's more variety.
I owe my mom a MASSIVE favour (or ten - I'll blog about that one tomorrow) so I'm going to put up some strawberry gutters for her this week... I'm thinking of planting some more things than strawberries though and I'll have to put lots of them up as it's a very hot and exposed area (my thinking is that if I put up enough it'll cool it down a bit...). Hopefully I can turn it into a relaxing and productive space for mom (and Dad) to enjoy :-)
I've started off with just 3 tiers to test out the plan (plus, I didn't have washers for the screws I'm worried that the screws might pull through the plastic...) Seems like a good thing I'm planting them out as the seedling trays have stunted their growth - they were pretty root bound.
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| The white powder was my over-zealous gardener adding bone meal to the planting process... I'd asked him to mix a handful into the soil and this is how he understood it (I was fetching a cup of tea!) |
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| The lettuces and beetroot are growing like crazy! The rain and warmer weather have done them the world of good (I thought they were duds as they struggled to get going!) |
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| Close up of the lettuce. I think I can make a salad with all the outside leaves soon and leave the inside to keep growing |
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| The onions are coming along nicely - the stems are strong and thick |
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