This morning and this evening I worked on the new bed that’s closest to the newly-planted strawberries. Z chisel-plowed it the other day, but one part of the bed was too wet, and part of the bed got kind of dug out (maybe he stopped or markedly slowed down the tractor in those spots), plus the paths in our garden are for some reason nearly always higher than the beds (a bad idea for a rainy winter and cool spring). So I experimented with a hula hoe, which was not the right thing for our big weeds in this bed (but ok for the strawberry bed); hoed new grass with the small hoe; and hoed out big weeds and big clumps of grass with the heavier hoe. This evening I tried to use a shovel to level out the ground, and then I tried to rake some of the hoed-out grass and weeds to the side of the bed. We’ve got to put the drip tape back into place tomorrow and perhaps cover the whole bed (whose soil I hope will not blow away before then) with compost — time willing. I’d like to use some fertilizer, too, but there’s not going to be time, and it’s fish-based, so I’d worry that the animals would just dig it up…

Just now I was thinking about companion planting and wondering just how much garlic seed and how many onion “sets” I have onhand– could I just plant them into the strawberry bed instead of giving them their own bed?? Sigh. It might be too late to plant them by the time I get around to it! #latenightgardenmusings

I also managed to do my most-complete strawberry picking in a week – I got about 2 baskets of berries. Every time I pick, I only get a few fully intact berries. That’s ok, though- we can freeze them and use them for our evening “fruit drink,” blended with banana. We haven’t been doing that much lately, and I haven’t been eating enough fruit at all.