159. Strawberries are almost the perfect garden crop . . .

They are easy to grow (and propagate), expensive to buy and they taste totally different to watery, insipid shop-bought fruit.

So, at the weekend we re-vamped our strawberry planter. Last time we did it I was too mean to buy the correct compost and sand mix so the plants struggled.

This time we followed the instructions carefully: stones at the bottom, and then a 3:1 compost to coarse sand mix. Then we planted thirty-two plug plants that we had grown from runners last year. (Never buy more than about 6 plants - after a year or two these will provide enough runners to fill a full-size planter.)


To complete the perfect bowl of Summer strawberries we are of course relying on Murray to do his stuff at Wimbledon . . .

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