Strawberry failure
There are times that we succeed in the garden and there are those times that makes me want to throw in the towel when things just don't come out the way you hope they would. This year I have several of such things, and one of them being my strawberries. I have a bed full of them - some are Alpine and some are regular. Alpine are doing ok on production size and flavor, but regular type is just abysmal. Maybe it's because of the cold/hot/cold spring or two weeks of rain, or late frost - I have no idea. But they are tiny, watery and tasteless. Here's my "bumper" crop of whole 5oz of it - and that includes my Alpines in it!. And I should be picking by baskets full by now. Most of the bed is moldy from too much rain so not sure if I'll get much out of it later or not - because as I type we're having one heck of a storm moving through the area which will only add more water to the over-saturated garden. If this doesn't get any better I'll be ripping out the whole bed and planting something else in there - like carrots for winter.
On the more positive side - the new batch of strawberries that I planted in new garden is doing better in growing, and while I don't expect large crops from it, it did surprise me with few of the early berries. It's promising sign for next year, pending Mother Nature won't get too crazy with us
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Sorry about your strawberries, mine aren't doing much of anything either. I picked a small handful today, tiny misshapen things with roly poly bug holes in them. I don't think anything is as bad as my poor pole beans though. Thankfully, there is also a lot of good going on in the garden.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry your pole beans got demolished. Mine are also suffering from bugs, especially by the fence in old garden. New one so far is ok. Interestingly enough, purple beans are not affected by bugs. I did order some Fortex from Johnny's seeds to try and plant so I can see what they taste like since you've recomended them. :)
Deleteoh no..sorry to see that your old strawberry bed is not doing well. I wish we get some good summer and all our plants grow well.
ReplyDeleteI hope so too, so far I'm having bad deja vu ala 2009 - mild winter, rainy spring and blight in summer. let's hope it won't happen again.
DeleteI'm sorry that your strawberries are being difficult. I feel your pain with all the rain! We had a flash flood go through the yard this evening. Mulch everywhere but in the beds, flooded lower level. My perfect speckled lettuce plants where under water ai it got dark. Hopefully the slugs and the earwigs drowned!
ReplyDeleteeverything but the raised beds are flooded here too. Last storm just went through and pounded everything to the ground. I'll check for damage in the morning but hoping that it's minimal. Hope your speclked lettuce are ok after the flood.
DeleteSorry about your strawberries. I lost some new herbs, my spring spinach and my chinese cabbage so far.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as though the high temps have broken. Hopefully this rain won't last much longer and we won't have any tomorrow.
I'm sorry to hear about your spinach and cabbages and herbs. I lost few cabbages and cauliflower to insects as well - did not cover it on time. Hopefully the rest of the year will be better.
DeleteHi! Sorry about your bad gardening luck. Hope things get better. If it makes you feel any better my strawberry plants are a complete failure and we could use some rain. Have been watering and I don't want to see our next water bill! Good luck! Nancy
ReplyDeleteThanks Nancy, good luck with your garden too!
DeleteWould love to say that we feel your pain, Jenny! However, surprisingly enough, Michigan is on a dry spell as of late....
ReplyDeleteI'm glad we didn't start full scale gardening years ago. It would be a nuisance to always look back to the non-wild weather pattern days of gardening. ;)
- Cloud
THanks, I needed that chuckle. Mother Nature has been in tiff lately so it's defintely not borring.
DeleteUgh, sorry about your strawberries. I sometimes wonder if they are worth growing with all the space they take up and how little I usually get. I have a small bed of them but, like Granny's mine are all filled with roly poly bug holes and some have rabbit teeth marks.
ReplyDeleteUsually I don't have any issues with strawberries and last year I had more than enough growing and they were large. This year they're small, twisted, tasteless and buggy. Oh well.
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