Potting Up Strawberries

My Agapanthus plant is finally bursting into colour. it was given to me by an old neighbour that I had known since I was a kid. It has to be over 30 years old. 

It started life in a smallish pot and got moved up every few years until it finally went in the ground under the apple tree. It thrives on neglect, It gets watered very occasionally and that's about it.

I have no idea where the brambles that are growing out of the paved area in front of the sheds have come from, I have cut back some extending growth but it needs pushing back hard and treated with the strongest weed killer I can find, not that any of the new weedkillers actually work, these days.

A check in on how my very late tomatoes are doing, and in the main they appear happy, will I actually get any tomatoes from them this year, who knows once can only try. The remained as seedings far too long but that was because I became ill and spent a week in hospital.  

Strawberry (Fragaria) Elsanta from ...............Fill in details  

A great mid-season Dutch variety that produces a lot of glossy, orange-red fruit with a delicious sweet flavour. Elsanta strawberries, a supermarket favourite, have a long storage life and are less prone to bruising than many other varieties. The juicy berries are available from mid-June to mid-July and are ideal for making your own jams or freezing to enjoy when they are out of season. Height: 20cm (8"). Spread: 30cm (12").

Strawberry (Fragaria) Elsanta Peat Free 9cm pots x 6 

Growing Information

Plant strawberry plants in autumn or late spring in a sheltered, sunny position in well manured, free draining soil. Plant strawberry runners every 45cm (18") in rows spaced at 75cm (30") apart. 

Spread out their roots and place them in the soil at a level where the crown of the plant is just poking above the surface. 

Avoid planting them too deeply as this may cause them to rot. Alternatively try growing strawberry plants in hanging baskets or in specially designed strawberry planters for the patio.

Vermiculite bags which turned out to be a bag in the brown paper sack!

Now that's disappointing, I bought two sacks and when I opened the brown paper sack there is only one!  I will be contacting Marshalls to find out why and hopefully get the other sack I have paid for. 

So into the mix I'm creating for the hanging baskets, is Miracle-Grow Peat Free MPC and Irish Peat Based  MPC 

With a touch of Vermiculite and hydrated Coir 

With some Water retaining crystals 

That's the water retaining crystals on the top of the layered structure 

Out Comes my 600mm long Power Planter and my trusty Ryobi Drill  

I have eyeballed the volume and hope it will be enough, I needed some room in the container for what happens next. 

Me mix it by hand, no way I have been doing it this way way, before the cancer and arthritis  

My now blended mix placed in the bottom of the hanging basket provided by Oakland Gardens was watered so that the water retaining crystals could do their thing and swell and retain water. 

The strawberries look to be two very different ages by the growth difference between the two packs of 3 plants  

The strawberries don't look happy and settled quite yet, but give them a couple of days and I'm sure they will. 

I was being chased by the sunlight which I'm not supposed to be in these days, It was at this point I watered what I had done and went in for lunch. 

Having the pots from the first 3 plants potted up the the first hanging basket it made filling the second basket a whole lot easier and faster as I packed the mix around the hanging basket to be between chains  

 

Somehow that hanging basket has a face!. Second batch of 3 plants unpacked, and they had been heavily watered by the supplier  

Pop the pot out and the plants into a perfect fitting holes, add some compost mix around the join for good measure and my work here was done.

There strawberries look to be much happier in their Hanging Basket. 

Small Steps Forward

 Photo's download...... words to be added soon

Hydrating Coir

 

I purchased these 6 blocks of Premium Coir Compost from ebay for the princely cost of £15.49 including shipping which works out at £2.58 for every 10 Litres worth 

These blocks measure 140mm x 140mm x 50mm thick and the volume is the same as the older 180mm x 180mm x 30mm blocks, that changed their packaging each year, but remained 99p or a £1 a block. Until that was, those that want to save the planet decided on our behalf to stop selling peat compost to domestic growers. 

Coirs value increased as it became a critical component in peat Free composts and in a very few years is now 2.58 x more expensive than it was for many years. 

I hydrated the six blocks of Premium Coir Compost using 3 litres of water, in square flower buckets from my favourite supermarket that I've had for years. as these smaller blocks don't come inside a plastic bag like their larger flatter cousins.  

Equigrow Order Arrives

Arrived safe and sound between the delivery window I was given of 2pm to 4pm

 

The Large 50 Bag Variety Pallet looking well what can I say "Very large on the doorstep" 

What can be spied on the top of the pallet, are a couple of additional bags, above and beyond what I ordered. More on that later .........

I did offer the courier a drink if he could walk the sacks through to the back garden for me, alas he was on a time crunch and had I been his last drop off, he would have done. So there I was with all these sacks on my front door, scratching my head, how I was going to get them into the back garden?!!. 

Hold that thought again, all will be revealed later on in this post.

Focusing on the Blue Pallet at the base of this mega stack of compost.

Blue pallets almost universally indicate ownership by CHEP, a global supply chain and pallet pooling company. They are rented rather than sold, meaning they legally remain the property of CHEP and must be returned, as buying or selling them is prohibited.

The Meaning and Origin of Blue Pallets

• Ownership: The blue colour is a registered trademark of CHEP. It allows the company to track, maintain, and retrieve its equipment across the global supply chain. 
• The "Pooling" System: Instead of buying pallets, businesses lease them from CHEP. After a shipment is delivered, the pallets are meant to be returned, repaired, and recirculated rather than discarded. 
• Legality: Because blue pallets are private property, it is illegal to buy, sell, trade, or upcycle them for personal use. Keeping or attempting to sell them can result in legal liability or civil penalties.

Other Pallet Colours

Colour-coding is a standard industry method to instantly identify which company owns or manages the equipment. 

• Red: Typically owned by LPR (La Palette Rouge) in Europe or PECO in the US/Loscam in Asia-Pacific.
• Brown: Indicates ownership by the IPP Pooling network.
• Blue Plastic (FDA/Hygienic): Some unbranded blue plastic pallets are utilized in the food or pharmaceutical industries to indicate they are made of virgin plastic, meet FDA hygiene regulations, and are easy to sanitize.

What to do if you have one

If you are a business or individual with unauthorized blue pallets, do not throw them away or attempt to sell them. You can arrange for them to be legally collected through the CHEP Return Portal. CHEP provides free pick-up services to clear their equipment from your premises.

I've completed the information on the Return Portal now I will just wait and see how long it takes them to come and collect their property. 

The 20 sacks of Real Farmyard Manure stacked adjacent to the Kitchen back door  

Now I have to say, the back garden is looking a wee bit crowded as one might expect having just brought 52 sacks of various composts from the front to the back of the house.

I would love to say it was me that did it, unfortunately that's not the case. Kelly brought 7 sacks through bless her before she had to pop out on a mission as in driving her old car with a broken clutch to the car dealer, she has just bought her new car from. 

It was my neighbour Sid's grandson Dave who came to my rescue, he is in his 40's a scaffolder and as fit as I used too be when I was in my 40's. 

He would not take a drink as a thank you and was happy with a simple thank you. 

As my old dad used to say, there is no taste in nothing, so I will be buying him a substantial quantity of his favourite beer and giving them to Sid for him. In that way I can ask him for a favour in the future again.     

Fertile Mulch on the decking beside the gate

Two additional sacks added to my order by Erika of Equigrow for me to trial, Premium Soil Conditioner and Finest Topsoil. I will be posting about these in a little while. 

Organic Green Compose stacked up by the greenhouse 

A couple of stragglers 

Tomato plants looking happy having been rained on heavily 

I made modifications to the height of the step to make it a better height.

The bottom part of the stepper just pulled off with a little persuasion. 

I have placed them behind the top of the step to pack 

it out from the rear of the building. 

The carpet covers a multitude of sins 

Decking Under The Storage Unit

Photos dropped, words and explanation to follow shortly ......