The first year I planted strawberries was disappointing; we had the beginnings of a bountiful crop until the birds dropped in for dinner and left us nothing. David, who had been anticipating a feast, was vexed beyond words, or at least those that can be repeated here. Determined not to lose another berry to airborne predation, he designed and built enough wire cages to cover the entire 240 square foot strawberry bed.
The next year he discovered that some kind of burrowing creature had dug under the cages to get at the berries. As an added outrage he actually saw birds wriggling through the holes to polish off the rest of our crop! Such a setback would have discouraged many gardeners, but David is very, very stubborn and really loves strawberries, so back to the drawing board he went.
We now have 24 raised strawberry beds, with half inch wire stapled to the bottoms to deny access. Each bed has a cage of the same wire that fits snugly on top. He is convinced that this will preserve our berries for human consumption but I have doubts, given the ingenious nature of our determined predators.
At any rate, we now have four rows of permanent raised beds dedicated to a single purpose, exempt from my practice of rotating crops. Diseases that afflict strawberry plants in the subtropical climes of Victoria have not put in an appearance in Mesachie, so I don’t have to buy new plants each year like they do south of the Malahat. My strawberry plants grow like weeds though, and need thinning all the time.
Bennett’s Law appears to apply here. In the late 1950s, then Premier W.A.C. Bennet purchased the houses across Superior Street from the Legislature to provide more office space. When some critics suggested he build an office building much larger than currently required “for the future,” Mr. Bennett responded that would be unwise because “bureaucracy expands to fill the space provided.” Evidently this theory applies to strawberries as well. In a few short seasons we have gone from a single 30 foot open bed to 24 presumably impregnable boxes, totalling 576 square feet. Even allowing for those berries eaten fresh we are going to need a lot of peanut butter, so I am trying those in the greenhouse this year.
David drilled two holes at both ends of each box to accommodate soaker hoses threaded through them, along the whole beds. Slugs et al don’t hang out in dry areas and since soaker hoses only water the plant roots, the rest of the beds stay dry.
Fortunately some things remain unchanged. Since I haven’t had any problems with diseases or insects I’ll keep on doing what I always have, spreading organic fertilizer alongside the plants in the spring, keeping them weeded and spraying compost tea every three weeks until the end of summer, even after the last berry has been picked so the leaves will continue to produce energy for next year’s crop.
Judging from the way our patch is responding to this sudden warmth, we may have an early harvest, and then there are the raspberries, cherries, nectarines, apples and pears. David may prefer them, but woman doesn’t live on strawberries alone.
Please contact mary_lowther@yahoo.ca with questions and suggestions since I need all the help I can get.
