Repeal and Replace

After thinking about it for a few years, I pulled the trigger on replacing my strawberries.  These plants are at least 15 years old, and are just tired.  The berries are sweet and packed with flavor, but they are so tiny.  I thought it was way too late in the season to plant new, and it may indeed be, but I found bare root plant still available (on-line), placed an order and they are on the way.

I spent several hours digging up the old plants, then ran the rototiller over the space and am now waiting for the UPS truck to deliver my new plants!

Taking our the old strawberry patch.

I found that the spading fork worked much better than the shovel for this task.

The patch extended down to the pink rose at the end of the garden.

You can see how tiny the berries are.  

Finally finished

Making a nice seed bed for the new plants.

Here you can see Charlie pulling out the wooden garden stake marking the potato patch and then chewing it up!

The strawberry patch rototilled and ready for new plants and Charlie just pulling out the garden stake.

I'm not sure why he chose today to chew this up.  They have been out for over a month!

After chewing up the stake, a dog is really thirsty and will seek out water where ever it can be found.

We pulled out the big sprinkler to water the pasture.  Baxter spent over two hours chasing the water.  He's just exhausted!

 Across the street from the strawberry patch, the raspberries are just about ready.

The golden raspberries are about a week ahead of the red ones.

The patch is just loaded with fruit.  I need to remember to keep it wet.  Raspberries need so much water and fertilizer.  I put chicken manure on this spring so that should cover the fertilizer part!