A taste of summer

Although last year we only had a limited supply, our soft fruits were very popular, particularly the strawberries. We grew a number of different varieties which enabled us to compare the fruits for taste and longevity. We found that both Elsanta and Ostara were excellent, providing fruit early on and late into the season and we plan to grow these two again this year, together a couple of other new varieties we have sourced.

Due to limited preparation time, last year we grew the fruits in baskets and the outside beds, but neither situation provided the best conditions, so this year we are a bit more organized and have been getting ready to be a little more fit for purpose both inside and outside the poly tunnel.

 

For the Elsanta variety, the our early fruits, we plan to get a number away in the tunnel and will use the side of the flow beds to provide the structure from which to 'hang' the plants. By building a simple frame we can easily support a number of grow troughs.

The troughs from our seed tray suppliers are ideal, at nearly a metre long the side of one flow bed alone will support 12, providing enough growing area for 48 strawberry plants.

We have taken the same approach outside on the side of the polytunnel - at over 24m long this provided a perfect space for 27 troughs.

 

At 4 plants per trough, this section alone will accommodate over 100 plants.

Still with a few troughs to spare, the fence line was the next host and using the same technique we built accommodation for the remaining containers.

 

Strawberries galore - well certainly enough to provide a taste of summer for a good number of Godney villagers.

 

With no time to waste, Melv gets the plants established in the tunnel, watered and settled into their new home.

 

And sure enough the plants responded - and after just a few days we were already seeing new growth.

 

A taste of summer indeed - I can almost taste those sweet juicy fruits, it won't be long...