My shed roof strawberry field

How about a sign as a tribute to a well-known band...'Strawberry Fields Forever'

 

Is your shed & roof holding up ok with all this snow clueless????

 

It was still on when I last looked, a few hours ago.

 

Will your strawbs "weather" the snow?

 

The plants that are on the roof are the offspring of ones that I planted in the garden (unprotected) last year or the year before.

My dad has a gazillion strawberries in his plantation (on his allotment), all accumulated over about 5 years, all outdoors all the time, in a much more exposed area than where I am, so I guess they are fully hardy. Its interesting because I think technically strawberries are herbacious (go away and come back in spring) but round here they appear to be evergreen, and we're not exactly in the warmest climate

 

Borage is very pretty and you can put the flowers in Pimms. So you could probably add it to salads and decorate cakes with it as well.

I've tried several times to transplant it from my sister's garden but it doesn't want to.

 

Its closely related to Comfrey, so I suspect it might for the same very deep tap root. Tap roots don't like to be moved.

 

Hiya C1.

Just be aware that Borage is quite invasive...

 

Good

 

Hows the Straws doing Clue?....got any photos

 

Not great unfortunately. I'm putting it down to experience. I lost some of the plants entirely, and others have struggled. Only one has put on plenty of foliage but no fruit. I realise now that I didn't put enough compost up there for them, and I failed to factor in that conditions on the shed roof are a bit more brutal weatherwise than the ground, because its higher than the fence so no windbreak, and slopes to face south east. The result, it dries out far too easily and quickly.

I might be getting a bigger shed soon, and my current shed will become the new chicken house if I do, so I'm not going to do much to it yet, but when I do attempt 2, I'm going to pay more attention to compost depth, watering and water retention. I have a plan in my head involving a windscreen washer pump off a car, a car battery, a fish pond full of water and fish poo/wee (plant nutrients), and a little bit of electronics (measure the resistance of the compost, if its close to infinite, the compost is dry, switch a relay and start pumping water).

 

That's a shame....but we live and learn....plus i don't think any of us banked on the weather being like this....i'm constantly watering my strawberrys that are containerised so i know how difficult it is to keep them going....sounds like you've got a good plan there

 

my current shed will become the new chicken house

Jenny