First Strawberry of the Season

I scraped off the slug (and the area it was munching on) and ate it anyways. Yum!

Around the Garden

The edamame and green beans came up nicely. They don't look quite as drunken as my snow peas.

I hope these strawberries survive until ripe. I've been seeing some nipped-off stems here and there. Rabbits? Squirrels? Feral Cats?

My white peonies look great right now. As soon as it rains hard, they will flop over though.

My fava beans are looking good. I can see tiny flower buds forming.

Finally! Some harvestable spinach!

Planting Dormant Strawberry Crowns

 finally got around to planting all my strawberries. I've never grown strawberries before, so hopefully I'm doing things right. I put about 30 plants in my new fruit garden (which was my cut flower garden last year) . I'm planning on putting some straw mulch over the landscape fabric as some point (the weeds still seem to be able to get enough light through the fabric).

Bareroot strawberry crowns wrapped in moist newspaper.

I covered the planting area with permeable landscape fabric. I cut holes in the fabric to pop in the strawberry plants. I also cut some holds for a couple hyacinth bulbs (which look kind of funny now).

Planted and watered.

Some of the plants are looking better than others. I think I let the plants try out too much before planting.

Fruit Gardening (a.k.a Pie Gardening)

I'm planning on planting a variety of fruit crops this year including strawberry (first time), raspberry, black raspberry, blackberry (a first), and rhubarb (another first).  I've cleared out the majority of the oval bed that was my cut flower garden last year to make space for a fruit garden. I have a feeling that I'm going to have to make another new bed for the space-consuming rhubarb. I'm really excited to expand my pie and jam repertoire this summer!

The oval bed will become the fruit garden (assuming I can work around the existing perennial flowers).

Are you trying any new fruit crops this year?