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| nicely rotovated patch |
So following on from last weeks chicken verses strawberry event I made another visit to my client and luckily the weather held out and the ground wasn't to wet. Its been so wet recently I was pleasantly surprised not to find it waterlogged. last week I uplifted the runners, potted them and left them to grow in the greenhouse until the spring.
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| composted bark |
This week the bed was fully weeded, cleaned and had a top dressing of a manure/composted bark mix. As i mentioned before my client has horses so there's an endless supply of manure (make sure its well rotted otherwise it can be very strong and burn the roots of your plants) and he has good access to wood chip which when composted makes extremely good soil conditioner. A layer of around 2" of both was applied and rotovated in to a depth of around 12". As this bed has been well cultivated in the past its an easy mix in. New beds on virgin soil may take alot longer to cultivate. Soil preparation is paramount especially if you want a good harvest.
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| mycellium roots within the compost |
The bark came from felled oak trees which had died and was chipped about 3 years ago and left in bulk bags - you know those ones from the builders merchants. These bags were left in the corner of a field and forgotten about until i found them. As you can see from the photos the consistency is that of course peat and is excellent for soil conditioning. it provides nutrients, opens the clay soil and holds water in the summer.
It also provides something else that really important to plants - beneficial fungi. the natural breakdown of the bark not only improves the soil but also aids the plant and a symbiotic relationship is formed. The faster this happens the better and healthier the plants will grow and as you can also in the photo long fungal runners can be seen through out the bark. Its a sign of a healthy soil.
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| older plants replanted |
So once the bed was fully cleaned, rotovated and leveled the the remaining strawberries that survived the heavily unprovoked chicken attack were cleaned and replanted. Remembering to plant them so the crown was at soil level - not to high so the roots dry out and not to low so it rots.
The only final thing to do was to water them in - this settles the soil around the roots and to do a final clean up of the surrounding path. Not to much as the soil was very wet, but just enough to bind the soil to the roots.
And there a new strawberry bed finished until the spring when the runners will be planted.
If you want to know more about growing strawberries then read my How To blog.
The client came down to see how it was progressing and was pleased with the result but then he dropped a bomb shell... informing me of a problem he had with some newly planted Yew bushes he wanted to grow into a hedge.....he's not having much luck..... more on that next time.
Until then
happy gardening.
Geoff.
Blog 29/11/2025 Gardening by Geoff.- horshamgardener.blogspot.com
All information contained in this blog and all the others is purely the opinion of the author and should be taken with advisement. please read the legal disclaimer. https://horshamgardener.blogspot.com/2025/12/sorry-boring-legal-stuff-updated.html
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