More Strawberries!

I thought it would be another couple of days before we got more strawberries, but up in the garden this afternoon I picked this bunch. If I can get this many strawberries each day, we'll have enough for another lot of jam before we finish eating this one! Of course, I ate a couple, and DD ate one, and the rest are going with DH tomorrow for his lunch, so none to add to the freezer stash today.

Some of you might remember that back in May, when I harvested my first lot of potatoes, that there was a strange bug on the stems, that I'm pretty sure was responsible for the early death of the plants. Talking to a few other gardeners yielded the idea that they might be the larval stage of the 28 spot ladybird. I wasn't sure at the time, as I hadn't recalled seeing any, but looking at my current crop today, I pulled these little critters off the plants. There were so many of them I was amazed. My first crop is looking a little the worse for wear, so I might not have gotten to them in time, but I'm hoping that if I keep an eye on the second crop regularly, I might just prevent the same thing happening. I offered these to the chooks, but they turned up their noses!

Finally, I've been promising info on my new garden plans for a while, but haven't had a chance to post about it. I took these pictures back in June, would you believe, and haven't posted them yet. This is the front lawn, between our house and the street. I plan to turn this, and the area around the corner (right to the fence, then left in this picture) into my new vegie garden.

As you can see, it's quite easy to fence off, in fact, we've already fenced it. A small fence between the tank and the fence, and another between the tank and the side of the house makes this side inaccessible by chooks. And a longer fence from the side of the house down to the front fence secures the other side. I've already begun work on the garden here, but I'll save that post for tomorrow, after I take some more pictures to show you.

The garden up the back that we already have will remain there, and I'll use it for larger crops that don't need to be visited/harvested as frequently. Some plans include a giant corn patch, watermelons, and of course, the strawberries will remain there, though I'll bring this years runners down to the front for a second strawberry patch there.