Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Fruit
We picked the first batch of rhubarb at the weekend. Although we only have three plants, they are very old and desperately in need of lifting and splitting - a job that I keep on failing to get around to - and are very productive. We pulled a couple of kilos of stalks off the plants and gave most of it away immediately. What is left will go into a rhubarb crumble, which is still the best use I have found for it. I may be a little more adventurous with later pickings. When the season is over, the plants will get a good dose of compost and this year I will lift and split at least one of them.
We also planted some strawberries. We had not really intended to as it is a bit late in the year, but there were a few tail enders for sale on the market for practically no money and we picked them up just because they were there. No idea what variety they are - we were just told they are very sweet and not earlies! We were not really prepared for them, so there was no bed ready, very little compost and no plastic mulch. The good news is that we had at least thought about it and knew more or less where they were going to go, so Rita roughly dug over some ground and removed the worst of the bindweed roots, I put planks of wood on either side and then covered it with old compost bags before planting through slits in the plastic. The weather has cooperated - the ground was very wet when we planted, then it rained heavily and now the sun is shining. Now we will wait and see what happens.
We also planted some strawberries. We had not really intended to as it is a bit late in the year, but there were a few tail enders for sale on the market for practically no money and we picked them up just because they were there. No idea what variety they are - we were just told they are very sweet and not earlies! We were not really prepared for them, so there was no bed ready, very little compost and no plastic mulch. The good news is that we had at least thought about it and knew more or less where they were going to go, so Rita roughly dug over some ground and removed the worst of the bindweed roots, I put planks of wood on either side and then covered it with old compost bags before planting through slits in the plastic. The weather has cooperated - the ground was very wet when we planted, then it rained heavily and now the sun is shining. Now we will wait and see what happens.
