Potagers

Today it was warm outside (10 degrees C, 50 degrees F and 62 degrees F in the big greenhouse) so I moved the strawberries (Kyril) from a narrow, windy bed reckoning that as they are of Russian provenance (see my earlier post) that they would stand the surprise of being transplanted on my birthday rather than in the spring.  I lifted each plant and made sure that there was plenty of soil underneath their shallow roots.  Then I arranged them around three sides of a recently enlarged bed which I had thought at one stage of turning over to strawberries when the broccoli had finished.  Then it came to me, a border of strawberries, let's get on with it.  I had already moved some manure, so my husband mixed it in further to ensure that it was not too rich. 

Most of the Kryil were of a good size and now they have space to extend as I have spaced between six and seven on each side of the square.  Smaller, leftover plants have found a home in a bed next to the big greenhouse.  Now I have what I could call a potager.   There were also enough strawberries for an adjacent bed by the shed where the line of February Gold daffodils might this year live up to their name.

I am conscious of how my views on allotmenteering have changed over the last five years.  I can have garlic chives, daffodils, rocket, penstemons, sweet william and now strawberries all in the same space.  I plan to attract bees, to provide cut flowers, for scent and display in early spring and for salads.  I leave pot marigolds where they have self-seeded and let sunflowers spring up and surprise me.  The allotment has become my kitchen garden.