The grasses and weeds often grow faster than the berry plants themselves. With the threat of showers on the way, today was a great day to clean up the berry beds.
I used a weed wacker to cut the weeds and grasses close to the strawberry plants in our new bed containing 1000 plants. Once the weeds were down, I gave supplemental water to hold the plants over until the rains come. It doesn't usually rain that much at the farm and takes alot to get a deep watering job done so I water whenever I get the chance. So far this year, I have used fish emulsion on the plants once to give them a boost. I plan on making a second application to help the plants get big and bushy before the seasons end.
It was quite a surprise to see no berries on the plants this past week but, I am guessing that our Roosters enjoyed red berries more than bugs. My hope now is that we can keep all the critters out of our strawberry beds and enjoy the second crop. The few berries we did try were simply delicious and sweet.
Today was bright and sunny in the high 70's ... a good day to check the bees. Still feeling that the bees could use more sun earlier in the day, Honey-pie moved the bees southward to a new location.
We were surprised that the bees had not done anything yet with the new super that was put there more than a month ago. We put a new super on anyway. When the honey flow starts, they will be workin overtime to store that golden honey.
It's been quite cool this Spring and everything is late in blossoming so, maybe the bees are behind as well.
Keep watching for updates on our buzzy bees!
At last we have another ripe tomato ... it may be small, but it was yummy. Our last ripe tomato was on Father's Day. It has been quite a long time to wait.
All the tomato plants are growing much better now. We have still had cooler temps than they would like, but come August we should be in good shape.
Yesterday, the girls bought some flowers and herbs so today, we worked on our gardens. We are just waiting for the steady good weather so everything can get to full bloom. Enjoy the sun!
