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Seeds &
Strawberries
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by Julie Harre
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Hi Everyone. Welcome to
spring at Cherry Plain Sanctuary Farm. This year, we are planning for
expanded strawberry beds, more berries from our little blueberry
bushes, and third year asparagus. The grapes gave us presents last
year, this year we hope for even more. The kiwis are slowly twirling
around the cattle panel trellis, growing each year. I'll tell you about
my organically compatible bug fight plan in next month's issue. We have
built our microfarm using cattle panel scraps, throw away lumber,
windows salvaged by the side of the road, and dumpster-dived odds and
ends to create a living, breathing wonderland of bee and hummingbird
friendly annual and perennial plants.
Using fresh llama droppings, combined with old washed out soil, we
built this garden step by step and now provide insect sanctuary along
with food for our human and animal family for much of the year. We
freeze, can, ferment and compost our produce, with nothing going to
waste.
Spring 2010 means purchasing new Fedco seeds, and for some of us,
spring also means completing the gargantuan task of seed inventory and
planting, including putting 100 new babies into their nests. After
cataloging all our old and new seeds, it is time to transform my pile
of stuff in the basement to a beautiful seed apartment complex. For
potting, we prefer to use organic soil and kelp from the Co-op.
Forgoing a sterile seed environment, I throw in a few llama poop
pellets with each seed. The strongest little Brassicae and lettuce
babies are safely in our greenhouse now, where they can germinate in
cooler temperatures. More will follow as it warms up.
Okay, seeds are done, what's next? Time to work on the clean up. We
have all raised beds, mixed with rich humus, composted cattle poop,
mixed with llama and goat poop. It's pure poopy! And the plants just
love to eat. I see the nettles beginning to perk up; soon there will be
fresh greens for us to eat, along with nettle tea. Our arugula and kale
plants went perennial last year too. I'm ready for spring! First,
there's more work to be done.
Let's talk about strawberries... I'm a fan of letting them run wild.
Isn't that what we all really want to do anyway? Why not plants too?
The strawberries are currently covered in snow and leaves, courtesy of
Mother Nature, which keep them all cozy through the winter. As the snow
melts, the little green runner plants emerge. Soon, I will be trimming
out the old, and making room for the new growth to begin. In the
winter, the happy plants naturally die off and/or go to sleep.
Springtime rolls around, many of them come back to life, the old ones
just continue to compost, and I have a whole new crop of strawberries
everywhere.
There is some work involved. In order to thin plants in spring months,
I dig up each new green emerging plant, place my trowel carefully under
it, then transplant the delicate greenling to a new home. Each summer
strawberry plant sends out new runners. I periodically remove these
from where they shouldn't be, such as in the bed paths, and move them
to new homes with their friends (and my friends).
Originally, I bought a total of maybe 20 strawberry plants at the
Honest Weight Garden Shop, including ever bearing and summer
strawberries to include fruits from early, mid and late summer. Since
my first purchase several years ago, we have probably 400 plants
growing and I have given away probably 200 plants to friends in the
summer. As all my friends know, I give away plants every year. Starting
with only a few plants and one bed, we now have five happy strawberry
beds that also include a few garlics and perennial flowers.
There is literally nothing else to do with strawberries. It's that
simple. How does this magical abundance work? Back to my original plan,
you let your strawberries run wild in the summer. Let them die off in
the winter. Then transplant them in the spring. If there are wild
strawberries growing nearby, so much the better. Every one makes
friends, and the bees share pollen between plants. Subsequently, my
strawberries are all multi-racial. Some people may find a radical
country approach to growing strawberries too free flowing and prefer to
limit their strawberry patches with black plastic, which also seems to
work. All of us grow strawberries differently, yet I am guessing that
we all agree on one thing: The first strawberry of the season that we
grew in our own little patch is the most delicious of them all.
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