Thursday began an early start to a busy weekend.
Sometimes I'm fooled into thinking that sage is just some boring ol' plant. Well, it sure showed me, as I was outside doing a little weeding!
I was actually just mosying past everything on my way to pull suckers and weed each grapevine. I don't know if you can see the clusters in these photos or not, but this first one shows what is available from a single trunked vine. A goodly amount...
But grape clusters grow from new branches on older wood, so the more older wood you have... sort of common sense here...
Did you know that the vine produce little tendrils of which some turn into clusters, and others just wind themselves around things to hang on for dear life?
Here's the work I had to do.
And here is my half way done point.
The kiwi vines are really showy with their bell shaped blossoms.
Later in the afternoon, Michael went off for more mulch while I processed about 2 hours worth of berries.
Here's about 1/3 of them.
Don't they look yummalicious?
These were destined to be Ladies Night strawberry shortcake later on in the evening.
Errands and a quick make-up class for Michael in which he was able to do some vaulting he'd not been able to practice for 18 months.
Then he went off with the guys for mens group and we ladies had some fun making a mess with home made cards.
And strawberry shortcake! A gift from God.
~Faith
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I just planted out my grape today. Finally. I don't have high hopes for it, the reason will take up too much room here, but you know where to look when i write it down later, lol.
ReplyDeleteStrawberries, one of my favorites. For me they are so entangled in their
paring with rhubarb, the smell of rhubarb makes me think of strawberries.
I need to stake a spot to plant a bed of them here.
Those kiwi flowers are pretty cool looking and the sage is quite stunning!
Icebear,
ReplyDeleteHave you thought of hardy kiwis? You must have, you are my self-sufficiency, try anything twin.
http://www.northscaping.com/InfoZone/FS-0027/FS-0027.shtml
I like those round raised bed things for strawberries. Not that I have one or have used one or anything, but they look good. And getting some of that edging would have to be cheaper than a kit.
The best pie I ever had was a rhubarb cherry pie. I can't wait til I have rhubarb again. I hope they live longer this time!
~Faith
Wow-you have kiwis?? I would love to see a picture of your strawberry plants. I'm trying to get ideas of what to do different with mine. I have them in raised beds, but they're not doing well there. I'm so impressed with your grapes!! Holly
ReplyDeleteHi Holly!!
ReplyDeleteIf you click on the tags over on the left you can find all sorts of posts that include the strawberry beds.
I've just got them 3 plants wide, and the row is about 36 or 40 feet long. I put down landscaping fabric when we planted them, because weeding such a large bed is pretty daunting.
Here's a link to the earliest photos of the bed, I think.
http://lemonadeadventures.blogspot.com/2009/05/april-13-2009-trimming-rooster-and.html
It's probably not the raised beds that are hurting your berries, but some other factor. They could be old, or not getting enough water, or diseased, or the soil might not be fertile... What's going on with them exactly?
~Faith