I'm sorry I've not been active for so long... my husband lost his job & started a completely different career, my mom passed away, my husband & I renewed our vows for our 20th anniversary, my kids & I were all diagnosed with heart dysfunctions, my father in law passed away, and now I'm training to "run" 5Ks in my wheelchair. A little bit has happened. My seedlings are getting larger, and our digital plans have been made for this year's container garden. We're still on the same 16'x8' deck, but we've made a TON of changes & improvements in the past two years! Here's our plan for this year as of right now. I did not try strawberries last year - we kept things to a minimum since we didn't know about my husband's job. But this year we're changing things around, adding a step-in cage to prevent squirrel-theft of our tomatoes, and decided to give the berries another try. Our tomatoes have been growing in Rubbermaid tubs for the past several years, and they have finally cracked enough that they need replacing. So our other big change this year is to move our tomatoes into double-stacked "self watering" 5 gallon pails. I've heard awesome things about this technique, and can't wait to see if we can grown 9' tall tomatoes in this as easily as our tubs! There was only one blog post about the garden last year - most of it complaining about our ninja-mafia squirrel problem, but there ARE a few photos so you can get an idea of how it looked. You can read it HERE.
hello hsm....good to see you...condolences on mom's passing regarding strawberries....in my climate you don't get a harvest the first year...I started mine last year with 2 tiny plants...by the end of the summer it spread to fill a 6 foot circle...strawberries grow by throwing shoots outward not upward for the most part...spreads like crazy so be ready .....
Thanks, Drumminmama! The photo is from our 20th; two years ago! Meatosaurus says "hi!" I have heard that strawberries do better as perennials, but I was counting on mine as annuals. I know it can be done and I know it's trickier, but with my raised containers the only chance I have at second-year crops is to wheel my tower into the dining room in the fall - which I'm planning on doing, but THAT is something I'm new at and can't seem to find anyone whose done it before! That's my favorite part of small-space intensive gardening; there's not much to lose, so I can afford to try anything at all that tickles my fancy!
