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Tall strawberries - will this keep the slugs at bay?
…and rain, followed by more rain… Moved the second set of tomatoes out to harden off, as well as the coveted cucumbers that have started, and the rain is pelting them pretty badly. While it’s raining, though – you can always start the next set of seedlings, which is what I’m doing. Started a batch of bush beans to fill in where they did not sprout initially, and will poke them in when they show up.
The strawberries I haven’t relocated yet are looking very good: managed to neglect the tall grass around the plants until they started to flower, then cut back the grass and layed it down next to the plants to give them a little more nitrogen as it rots – made the strawberry plants grow very tall, hoping that this will keep the slugs off of many of them. This took some time and care, but I am hoping it will pay off in the long run. About 30 minutes of careful clipping around the strawberry plants. The last few years with my careful cultivating and keeping the weeds at bay never yielded as many strawberries as I have seen here. Hoping I get to eat a few before my daughters gobble them up! They have both been helping me find the alpine strawberries that are (thankfully) taking over the side yard. This has been going on for quite a number of years, and I’m always happy to see them proliferate. I avoid several areas of the yard when mowing so the wild flowers have a chance to bloom. Along with these flowers come the wild or alpine strawberries. The berries are about 1/4″ in diameter, and are packed with flavor. Attempts to move them and cultivate them have failed in the past, so I let them grow where they may.
A better solution (which I may implement in the transplanted strawberry patch) is to plant bush beans along side the strawberry plants. They are good companions, and it makes for more productive soil.
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