If you are planting strawberries from seed the first year, you are supposed to pick the flowers off until July 1st so the roots can grow and you will get a bigger crop. You are also supposed to get rid of 1/3 of your crop keeping only 1/3 of your runners, next year do the same of your older plants replacing 1/3 of them, etc., each year keeping your strawberry plants at between 2 and 3 years old at all times. Always move them to a different location because of bugs each year, cut them back to 1 inch tall in fall and move to their new location. This is from books and internet and most say the same, but that is for everbearing strawberries. If you have June bearers, you never cut your runners because that is where your crop comes from. Do you know what kind of strawberry you have? It will help, there are 3 kinds, everbearing, june bearing, and another I can't remember similar to everbearing. I thought when you bought plants, they were on their second year? I might be wrong, but you can ask your nursery where you bought them how old they are. And speaking only from books, the cucumbers do not like wind either, they call them ridge cucumbers because you usually plant them in a ridge, a few inches deep in the row, this gives them a sunken bed and protection from wind. I can't say from experience this is true, and my cucumbers did better as ground cover producing much more than the year before, but location is probably the reason why too. I changed them to a different row the next year and on the ground you can say they may have sprouted more roots making more plants.

I've never had luck with carrots or radishes, in the ground outside or in containers in the greenhouse ... may try once more ... but peas are another story: I planted peas (they were either sugar snap or 'dwarf gray sugar' snow peas) in a 5-gallon container in the greenhouse. It was just after the holidays, so stuck leftover white birch branches in there to get them started, then added a tripod when needed. Timing is crucial; if I'd planted them earlier, they'd have taken over the greenhouse before it was warm enough to move them outside safely. Still, we were able to harvest fresh peas in March, about when it's traditional to plant them. the same might hold true for pole beans ... haven't tried them. I started broccoli seeds in the greenhouse in late winter to move outside, but I don't know how they'd do actually growing out in a greenhouse, since they like cooler temperatures and a GH can get pretty warm, even on a frigid winter day here. Herbs worked out great, mixed salad greens and lettuces, cherry tomatoes; this year will try the heirloom "Yellow Pear" tomatoes also. BTW, based on a post over in (I think) the tomatoes forum, I tried rooting cuttings from my mature tomato plants in the garden and it worked! They seem healthy and are setting fruit. Will continue this trial, moving some of them into the greenhouse for the winter, to see how it goes.

I don't know how big the giant pumpkin is yet. It weighs over 20 kgs as I compared it to the weight of the kids :) It is small compared to what it is supposed to be but the fall from the tree didn't help. It has really only grown properly on one side as the other side is a bit deformed. We just planted some more seedlings & seeds in the garden at home yesterday - tomatoes, lettuce, corn cucumber & silverbeet. The school garden is going slowly as the main teacher who organised the garden was transferred and another teacher could be transferred yet so no-one really wants to plan too much. We did a bit of planting & weeding yesterday in the school garden though so it isn't being neglected. Hopefully in the next week or so it will be sorted out.

Hi Aemon Sounds like you have done well...if your sleepers are not old ones...some of the old ones have been treated with creosote...another baddie Your mushroom composted soil sounds really good and I have one peice of advice which as is usual comes too late (if you did not think of it yourself) and that is to roughen up the surface of the clay by digging it over before putting the soil on top...the reason for this is because clay usually has a smooth surface and is not water absorbing...what happens is that when it rains or you water the topsoil the moisture that leeches down will reach the clay (where it is smooth) and it will run off because that is the way of least resistance...you will find seepage of highly nutritious blackish coloured liquid at some point...if you have dug over the clay so that you have a very rough surface it will prevent the leeching liquid from flowing and so it will soak into to the clay and enrich it with bacteria and soil fungus thus helping to created an even better soil...I am assuming you are on some sort of slope where you are cheers Peter Good luck