Strawberry planting

The rain stopped just at the right time for me to spend this Monday afternoon on the plot as is my normal routine.
I carefully collected together  everything I needed before leaving the house as I had several separate jobs I wanted to complete.
My first task was to plant the extra strawberries I had sent away for. I say "extra" as I duplicated my order with two separate suppliers, having forgotten I had ordered the first lot!
Strawberries seem always to come in dozens so my first order was for a dozen 'Honeoye', a prolific early season AGM (RHS Award of Garden Merit) variety, and a dozen 'Hapil', a mid-season AGM variety that suits dry sandy soils. They took half my strawberry bed.
The second order also contained a dozen 'Honeoye' which I shall use in containers at home, and a dozen 'Mara de Bois' a perpetual strawberry, also an AGM variety, which took a further quarter of my strawberry bed. What remains of the old plants is a mixture of some cheap 'Elsanta' plants and some donated by a neighbour. Both are mid-season varieties but with a short season. The spare plants went to my new neighbour to help him stock up the empty plot he has cleared so well.
Hopefully I will get a good harvest over a longer period with my new stock!


I then planted two more rows of seed potatoes; one of Charlotte, my second earlies, and one row of Sarpo Mira, my Blight resistant variety which I will intersperse amongst my more susceptible varieties.

​I then spent some time putting in braces for my raspberry support posts using some bits of posts left from the dismantling of the Horse Litter  bins. In the last 15 minutes I put two barrow loads of my compost into the new runner bean trench to provide a rich source for the plants which will retain the moisture as well. I will dig in some chicken manure as well when I backfill the trench to give the plants a real boost.