Dyson, my grandfather raised strawberries (to sell) when I was a youngster and lived with him. I remember they came packed moist and in some kind of moss. I'd guess we planted close to 2 acres of strawberries.
Good luck with yours.
April fools 2013
Darius, my small greenhouse is almost like yourself it has a darker cover and it is not on casters. I have it in the living room and I mounted a grow light under 2 of the middle shelves. My bigger greenhouses in the yard have th same cover as yours. My only fault with them is that they don't have a vent in the top. I plant to cut a flap in the back of each one near the top and put Velcro on it so I can open and close it. If you have a few strings of Christmas lights you could put those in there.
Dyson, you have Sun today? It has just started to rain here. Good luck with your berries. Hope you get lots of pies from them. :)
My folks were strawberry farmers. They farmed about 10 acres of berries back when they had to be stranded. They would hook the horse to the straw cart which was actually built on sled runners and drive into the pine thicket. They would fill the cart with straw and drive back to the field where they strawed the berries. It was very labor intensive but my folks were hard workers. They hired a black family from Mississippi to help during picking time. Daddy had built a huge 2 room camp for them to live in not far from our house. There was a kitchen and a big sleeping room full of bunks. They were very nice people and hard working.
We were up all night last night. We go to bed late but I was having spasms so I took a zanaflex and had been asleep for about an hour when Steve woke me up. His BP was high and he was having trouble breathing. He took a second dose of his meds and the top number came down a few points but the bottom was still climbing. It was up to 112 so we went to the ER. By the time we got there the meds had started to work and his BP was coming down. They ran a bunch of tests and everything g was good. His lungs were clear and his kidneys are holding their own. He has just a bit of fluid around his heart but nothing to be concerned about. They gave him a breathing treatment, did some blood work, some xrays and a CT scan. Steve has some abnormalities with his aorta and some vessels. His aorta come from the wrong side and goes behind his windpipe before descending. He has some vessels that should have disappeared before birth but didn't. They wrap around the front of his windpipe and together with the aorta it forms a ring around his trachea. His aorta is also thicker than normal. All this coupled with the high BP caused his windpipe to be constricted a bit which gave him trouble breathing. He was fine after about 3 hours and we came home. We fell into he'd exhausted at 9 this morning after having been up all night. I got up a few hours later and got the feeding done and prepared the garden for low temps just before the rain started. Think I may nap now before getting ready for church.
Glad Steve was okay in the final analysis.
Caj what a scare . Glad things came out ok . sending you love lady.
not much here. just have not felt to chatty lately.
cold today brrrrr.
still trying to figure out my compost and my need to get canisters for my plastic, paper and misc. i need to start my recycling program
also i found a company that makes drinking on the go mugs and containers out of recycled materials and safer to drink from.
made in america too ! .
Wind was bad today and both my outdoor greenhouses blew over. Got one stood back up by I will have to empty all the stuff I was storing in the other, take it apart and put it back together. The life of a gardener. sigh
bummer Caj. so sorry to hear of it.
didn't do much this weekend. lots of rain and wind.
went out with friends
wondering what i m going to do with them two small baby bunnies. need to get them sexed , my eyesight just ain't that good LOL
we won't be getting turkeys this year. no more room. i got six laying pullets in a cage and i need to get them out in the big hen area but them hens are mean as a snake to any new commer ! and they are still smaller then the big girls out there.
Put your smaller hens in the big pen in a cage. Let the bigger hens get used to them being there. I use a wire dog crate and throw the feed around the edges of the crate. That way they all eat together. Leave them a few days and then you can let them out together. Worked for me every time.
Got my second greenhouse upright without having to take it apart. Glad it wasn't hurt in any way. I was blessed when it blew over, it landed up next to my growing bed but didn't tear the bird netting I have over it.
Two of my six cucumbers look like they will make it. They each have a bloom on them. I was toying with the idea of pinching the first blooms to let the vines get a little bigger. Any thoughts?
My berries are blooming and looking good. I have forty plants in the two towers. I also have about ten or so plants left in a plastic half barrel from last year. I was going to move them but they are blooming now so I don't want to disturb them right now.
My onions are going gangbusters. I have some that are nearly eighteen inches tall. They are sweet yellow onions. I like them much better than the red or white onions. I planted them around the four edges of the long planting bed. I have an assortment of bush shell beans and a few sweet peppers in the middle of the bed. I had eight peppers in it but four of them got burned up. I want to start some more of the ones that I lost. Beans are doing well. I look for them to start blooming before long.
My peas are getting some height to them but they are laying on the ground. I have them planted next to a pole gate but they can't climb on it. I need to get some small gauge wire on the gate for them. Almost every one I planted sprouted so I have nearly fifty plants. Looking forward to them. They are Sugar Ann peas. Delicious in stir fry but I really like them right off the vine too. I snack on them while I am working in the garden. I always plant a Matt's Wild Cherry tomato just for snacking while I'm working.
My tomatoes are looking good. I had to buy plants after I burned mine up in the greenhouse. I bought a Mr. Stripey, a German Queen and a Rutgers. They are in buckets in the garden. I bought four Mortgage Lifters. I will plant one in my garden and put the other three in buckets and give them some elderly friend's. They can't garden anymore but they can take care of one plant on the porch and enjoy some fresh tomatoes. Now I have to get some buckets and potting soil. I will mix the potting soil with some compost from the goat house. I have plenty extra cages. I am excited to see how they will like it.
I put up some wire to make a lot for my pony. I want to bring him to the house to eat some grass. There is no grass where he is and there is plenty here. I will move the lot around as he eats the grass down. He will live with the goat and have the protection of the goat house at night and in bad weather. A friend is doing some work on my cart so I can get Max back in the harness. Really looking forward to that. It's been four years since I have done any carting.
I have been busy taking the compost out of the goat house. I want to get it cleaned out and get clean sawdust put in before I bring Max home. I am going to move the compost into my melon patch. That is actually no longer a melon patch since something ate off my two melon vines. I have decided to move the compost out there and plant potatoes in it. I have covered the ground with cardboard to kill the grass and weeds and I have been putting all my kitchen garbage out there. I think by next season I should have a nice bed out there.
Wow, Caj, you have been busy!
I got all 100 Strawberry plants into the beds - though a bit on the cramped side, everything else I planted so far is doing well - except the cucumbers that will be a redo.
Dyson, are you coming to the RU at Fairy Stone Park on May 11th?
Not going to make it - work Thur - Sun.
Well, we'll miss you!
Had Steve back in the ER today. He has a spot on his back that we are afraid May be MRSA. They did a culture and we won't get any results on it before Thursday. They started him on Bactrim. It is a worrisome time for us.
I potted up two tomatoes in big pots, put cages in them, gave them a marigold companion to keep the cut worms away and delivered them to 2 elderly ladies from church. One is a diabetic that has trouble getting around and the other has Alzheimer's disease. They were thrilled and it was such fun to see them so happy.