Two years ago we put in a large strawberry garden. It was a little bit of an experiment as I had only ever grown strawberries in my vegetable garden, and not in a dedicated patch. Russell built me a cover (for my birthday) using pipe, hayband and netting. It worked really well for the first season.......

and then half way through last Summer the structure just collapsed. It was fine in the morning and then mid afternoon it was like this. It certainly made picking the strawberries difficult, as well as maintaining the grass and edges.

After 2 years, the plants needed pulling up, and the watering system had failed. The plants were crowded and needed new soil.

It was time to rip it all up and start afresh. It certainly was a job pulling off that black plastic, and there were plenty of bugs underneath.....thankfully no hibernating snakes! I decided to let Nugget out for a scratch, and she quite enjoyed the feed without the competition of her mates.

With the whole site cleaned off and most of the plants given away, it was Saturday's job to start the new frame for the netting. The posts went in first......

and on Sunday the new framework that Russell had made went up.......not a piece of hayband in sight.....lol! The treated pine sleepers are for the three new garden beds to house the new strawberry plants.

A big pile of compost was delivered yesterday afternoon, and once the beds are ready, it will be my job to barrow it to the strawberry patch. At least it is downhill from the compost to the garden! I did put out 6 barrow fulls this morning, topping up some raised vegetable beds.

While we were in the gardening mood, these pittosporums got a 'little' bit of a prune back.......with the chainsaw! They are now about half the height they were, and although I still need to do some trimming up, they will be much easier to maintain.

Now you can see the front of the building

and there is so much light in the classroom.......it's amazing!
There is a change in the weather coming, and it looks like I might be back in the shop tomorrow and playing with fabric instead of plants!
Linda :)