hardly any rains for the past few months.
the harvest was enough for us to put some jam and frozen berries in the freezer, have a few rounds of shortcakes and i gave about 10lbs away to my brother and a friend. that was it.
having covered the large patch way out back meant i wasn't expecting as much as some previous years.
a spot of grass i'm digging out of the green manure patch is going to become a new strawberry patch but i'm also trying to think of other plants i can work in back there. i need other ground covers that give berries (not bushes, no thorns, can survive clay with some mulch or other plants around).
any ideas come to mind?
i have a spot of white clover to move and i thought i would trial that being mixed in with the strawberries and other plants. i'll have to keep the area watered and add some mulch to give the surface more organic matter, late June is not the best time to move anything, but...
since this area may be disturbed again (to get at any remaining grasses that try to show up that i may have missed this time around) i'll be able to see how things work together and what survives back there.
one good thing with all this digging and the heat i'm sweating and working off about 1lb a day.
the other good thing is that i get to check out how the various plants in that space have developed and changed the soil from what it used to be like when i first planted it (very pale clay). the top
8 inches or so are much darker and there is plenty of signs of worms and even something close to topsoil in spaces... the grasses i may not like but they are good companion plants to alfalfa and trefoil. i just want something other than grasses.i have creeping jenny and creeping phlox, but not enough to cover a large space. buckwheat, turnips and radishes are my easy fill in a new area plants. hmm...
songbird