Strawberries, Row Cover and Sheet Composting - Sustainably Grown
A huge gamble I hope plays off - I planted my ever bearing Albion strawberry transplants Monday, May 2nd almost a full two weeks before the last frost date. I'm hoping using a different method of growing will give me the success I'm hoping for, with the good news being I only planted 500 strawberry plants.
Sheet composting - It has been around a while and I've previously used a similar method commonly called lasagna gardening - it worked very well for us on absolutely horrible soil. This time I followed the guide by Oregon Department of Extensions - Here is the article. Pictures below some of the process - I started with marking out a 50foot by 30inch bed and then times it by 5 for a total of 250 square feet. The I put down either wet newspaper in a good layer or cardboard. Then followed with either small pieces of bark, goat compost, or leaves depending what I had at the time. Next layer was straw. Followed by a mixed compost and lastly by soil....dug from our small treed area.
Strawberry Transplants - I ordered them in December 2015 for Late April delivery and to be planted according to the Farmers Almanac on May 1/2 but since May 1st was our Orthodox Easter....they were all transplanted May 2nd. Great customer service from G. W Allen Nursery in Nova Scotia who kindly called to politely ask if I was crazy to have them come in about 2 weeks earlier than everyone else. I explained my logic - truly hoping I'm right. Build sheet composting beds (so the ground isn't frozen), and covering with Agribon 19 with hoops to increase the temperature and protect from frost. Also I put straw around the strawberry transplants to keep the weeds down and to add a mulch. Then on the outside of the row covers we put more straw to help hold the row covers down and to keep the weeds down within the aisles.
Row Cover - The row covers were made of electrical conduit 1/2 ten feet long cut in two $4 each, and 12 inches of rebar pre-cut $2.19 each. The rebar is put into the ground 6 inches with 6 inches on top to bend the 5 foot pvc tubing into. Then all this is covered with agribon-19 (I ran out and used Dollar Store frost cover and it looks fine at a 1/3 of the cost). Finally, the cover is fastened onto the pvc tubing with clothes pins (wide at the bottom) purchased for .15cents a piece.
Below shows the 5 rows of strawberries in row cover and the field to be made into beds.
Sheet composting - It has been around a while and I've previously used a similar method commonly called lasagna gardening - it worked very well for us on absolutely horrible soil. This time I followed the guide by Oregon Department of Extensions - Here is the article. Pictures below some of the process - I started with marking out a 50foot by 30inch bed and then times it by 5 for a total of 250 square feet. The I put down either wet newspaper in a good layer or cardboard. Then followed with either small pieces of bark, goat compost, or leaves depending what I had at the time. Next layer was straw. Followed by a mixed compost and lastly by soil....dug from our small treed area.
Strawberry Transplants - I ordered them in December 2015 for Late April delivery and to be planted according to the Farmers Almanac on May 1/2 but since May 1st was our Orthodox Easter....they were all transplanted May 2nd. Great customer service from G. W Allen Nursery in Nova Scotia who kindly called to politely ask if I was crazy to have them come in about 2 weeks earlier than everyone else. I explained my logic - truly hoping I'm right. Build sheet composting beds (so the ground isn't frozen), and covering with Agribon 19 with hoops to increase the temperature and protect from frost. Also I put straw around the strawberry transplants to keep the weeds down and to add a mulch. Then on the outside of the row covers we put more straw to help hold the row covers down and to keep the weeds down within the aisles.
Row Cover - The row covers were made of electrical conduit 1/2 ten feet long cut in two $4 each, and 12 inches of rebar pre-cut $2.19 each. The rebar is put into the ground 6 inches with 6 inches on top to bend the 5 foot pvc tubing into. Then all this is covered with agribon-19 (I ran out and used Dollar Store frost cover and it looks fine at a 1/3 of the cost). Finally, the cover is fastened onto the pvc tubing with clothes pins (wide at the bottom) purchased for .15cents a piece.
Below shows the 5 rows of strawberries in row cover and the field to be made into beds.
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