Strawberry Fields Forever... Eventually

 

My wife's father always grew strawberries and they lived in the strawberry capital of the Philippines so I suppose it shouldn't surprise anyone. When my wife and I decided to undertake the farm garden venture, one of her dreams was to eventually start a strawberry bed. So last year, I made two raised beds over on berry hill and she planted them with strawberries. But my wife is a tightwad and bought the cheapest, roughest looking strawberry plants she could find at the time, which back then had been picked through for weeks, and planted them. Less than a handful of them even survived until summer. 

So this season she wanted to try again but in one of the main gardens. This time she went earlier and bought better quality strawberry starts, still complaining about the price, and then they have sat on our deck, in the greenhouse, or inside the main house ever since. This is because of cold, wet, and way below freezing temperatures we have had over the first several weeks of April. We took them down to the farm on our last visit but it was way too wet to tromp around and plant them and so we brought them back again, which turned out to be fortunate due to two nights in the mid 20's. 

Things are warming up and we've had nary a drop of rain for the last seven days but more rain was forecasted towards the end of the week and we have other plans this weekend and so I made a solo trip down to the farm to make a new bed per my wife's specifications and to get them planted for better or worse. I've never planted strawberries with weed control in mind but since we can only get down there once a week, we are giving this setup a try. I tucked in the edges well and put lots of staples in it to hopefully protect it from the wind. All the while, humming the Beatles tune, Strawberry Fields Forever.