I plant strawberries for 1 season only (and this is not uncommon here in Germany). Get good runners from the best bearers (usually the lousy bearers have the best runners and vice versa, but as they are clones of the mother plant you'd get lousy bearers). Early August they are cut and planted on a sunny patch watered well. And in late Aug. to mid Sept they are planted in their new patch. And next spring good harvest of large fruits, in our area the 1st year harvest is the best: healthiest plants, biggest berries, highest yield. Rinse and repeat. Planting space 1 foot or slightly more between rows and 1 foot or slightly less in the row. Try to get a good cultivar, I live with quite loamy/clay soil here >>TeniraAnd strawberries are hungry and thirsty, on lighter soils a good manure digging in and good water supply will increase yields. I harvest +-1/2 pound per plant in a decent year (a nasty late frost counts as bad year). In 2nd and 3rd year yields are still decent.

Hi everyone , been busy working on gardens and suffering from what appears to be a chronic case of Poison ivy that keeps recurring for some reason. On my third dose of steroids for it . I hope that this course of steroids has finally controlled it! it has been brutal ! Otherwise I am gonna have to take up wrestling or something ! ( as they said on saturday night live " gonna Pump you up ! LoL ! ) Seriously though I have not been enjoying this spring all that much fighting with this poison ivy thing . Seemed to start shortly after the swap and has continued to this day ! Ross , if it ever stops raining and we get some blooms I will definitely share some pics but for right now we are in limbo between spring bloom and summer bloom ( usually lasts 10 or so days but this year is lasting much longer cuz we havent seen any sun ! ) I do have a curiousity question though please Ross. Do your lupins self seed? I have some bags of lupin seeds but have never successfully germinated any but if they self seed , then I will just scatter the seeds and hope for the best . I was also wondering after talking to a number of people at the swap , just how many of us that are avid gardeners are married to people who really arent interested in gardening . I thought to myself , how odd. I guess opposites really do attract . ( Interesting isnt it ?) I know my hubby could care less and just puts up with my compulsion to garden ! Signet

Hi, Misty! ALWAYS nice to see you pokin' your head in around here! It's interesting that you left the ROCKY Mountains--and now you have ROCKY soil instead! I'm not so sure that's a good trade off! :-D But I'm glad to know you're still growing a buncha veggies! There's no food as good as home grown veggies--especially tomatoes! I don't know what they are, but the Pink Stuff they sell in food stores are not tomatoes! If you like Sungold, you REALLY should try Sweet Aperitif red cherry some year! They're "different" from Sungold, but they are BOTH To Die For! [Fedco--good seeds, good prices! Free shipping over $50 -- $6 under $50!] If you're in "eastern" Kansas, what town are you in/near? I'm asking because long, long ago, my husband's best friend--best man at our wedding!--was from Hutch--as in Hutchinson! And when he got married, his Intended was from Beatrice (Bea-A'-trice!), and my husband was HIS best man so we went back there for the wedding--the wedding was in Beatrice! Then, after they got married they lived on his father's (inherited) farm at Hutch, and one year we drove back there and stayed--in the olde farm house--for a couple nites and one day went out and waded in the Arkansas (Ar-KAN'-sas!) "river," which runs across the farm they lived on! It was great fun--except for the nasty, nasty "no-see-ums" that were biting us--no matter where we were! So I'm just wondering how close you might be to that area! Getting way off the tomato subject!!! Also! If you're close enough to St. Louis, have you ever heard of Cahokia Mounds??? It's right across the river (the BIG river--not the wading kind!) from St. Louis at Collinsville, Illinois! If you've never heard of it, search it (I recommend doing it on DuckDuckGo so you can actually SEE the "images"--since you can't anymore with google search!). It's part of the "Mississippi River Mounds Cultures", ancestors of some of today's "east coast" tribes (Creek, Shawnee, Seminole, and more!)--there are "ruins" that "look like" Central American ruins, but they're "made of earth!" If you're interested in "that sort of thing" I thought they were very interesting! If you ever go and you walk to the top of "Monk's Mound" (yeah, named by White Man!) you can "look across the river" and see St. Louis--that's how close it is to the river! I found the Ye Olde Folks thread on RMG (actually, I had saved a link to it--it's virtually impossible to find anything you try to search for on GW anymore since houzz took over!) and I'm gonna do a short post on it right after I post this, to bump it up! It was started in 2008! If you have "some time," check it out! I just reread virtually the whole thread again--Memories!!! Candy cigarettes and Burma Shave signs!!! Please do keep showing up here every now and then! You're Family, and if you have "garden"--or bird!--questions, we're still here with answers--even if you DO live in No-See-Um Kansas! Happy Spring, Skybird F 03.01.24 @ 1255 MST

gardenfreak, forget about the postage, will be my first good deed of the new year ! lol Have located a smallish, ( 3/4 cup ? ), plastic jar with a lid, should be perfect to mail up a good amount of seeds enmeshed in a bit of orange flesh. My Red Lady papaya plant is 5 1/2 feet tall, with fruit clinging to the trunk from a foot above the bottom to 4 ft above the ground, where the trunk ends. The top 1 1/2 ft and sides are totally covered by the wide leaves, as shown above. As I recall, the flowers showed up quickly after the 18 " tall plant was put in the ground, maybe 7 - 8 days or so. Good luck with your papaya growing up there in 7a. Am sure you are experienced with these guys and know about very gently rubbing the black seeds against a metal strainer before planting. I share your enthusiasm, - watching mother Nature in action is amazing ! ( smile ) .