Spent the day digging over the old brassica bed. I have taken out the swedes and kolhrabi and put them in the store shed. There are not that many left and the ones that are will be eaten over the autumn.
Comfrey leaves have been dug into the trenches because strawberry plants seem to grow better when this is done. I also dug in some pigeon manure. After digging over the ground was consolidated by shuffling over it and raked as flat as that part of the allotment would allow. I went around looking for some well rooted stolon plantlets in the strawberry bed and transplanted them into the new area.
I planted four lines with about 15 plants in each line. The plants were spaced about 30cm each way. I could have offset the planting but didn't mainly because I didn't think of it but also because it is easier to hoe when the plants are in lines both ways. A little mychorrhizal fungi was added to each of the planting holes and each plant was watered in with a little comfrey liquid.
I am going to plant another two lines of the year old strawberry plants because they will still be fruiting well next year.
There will still be room left on this bed so I will plant some rocket, lambs lettuce and American land cress for winter salads.
This will still leave a considerable number of old strawberry plants unused. I will dig these into the ground they are occupying now adding some pigeon manure as well. Then the grazing rye and winter tares green manure will be planted in rows to cover this area.
This will mean that two whole allotment beds will be covered in green manure. I am hoping that I will be able to cover much more of the allotment in green manure before I run out of seed.
I have put most of the onions into the store shed as well. They have got to a reasonable size despite the onion fly and the cold wet weather.
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