Strawberries

Added ten new strawberry shoots, from a ten pack at Home Depot, making a total of 20. They seem to be doing really well in the raised bed. It is in a protected part of the yard, so I hope to keep it alive into the summer. I have tried strawberries years ago, in those clay strawberry pots with all the openings in this sides, as conveniently pictured for you here on this page. Yeah, that looks great at first, but forget about it, not in Phoenix. Nothing in clay does well in Phoenix, it is just gets baked up in the heat. So I am onto plan B. We shall see how they do.

Great warm day today. I tilled a bunch, and laid out three new sections about 3x13 each: carrot, tomato, and hot pepper. Good lord, I love my tiller!

A victory garden is something you can't just set up in a day. It takes a while, just to get the soil prepared, loose and grass free. I am getting my victory garden up now, before I really need it, so it will be ready later, when I really do need it. Plus I can get my knowledge base tightened up and really get to know my soil and microclimates, so I can make my mistakes now, when it is really not a big deal. I am already realizing I did some things that I probably shouldn't have, just a few weeks ago.

Mulching trees with newspaper is pretty cool, but you have to bury the edges of the paper under the berm walls of the tree basin, or the wind will pick up the edges and blow them around your yard. Also, thrown down the whole newspaper, all together, or at least a couple sections folded up. Anything less is too lightweight.

Oh yeah, also threw down a bunch of sunflower seeds, that have been sitting out for two years, I collected them off of my sunflowers two years ago. I don't know if they are too old, or if it is too early for sunflowers. I need to thrown down some nasturtium too, also two years old. Now those are some pretty flowered plants.