Strawberries, meadow and cutting garden

I haven't blogged for a while. But lots of things happened outside the house and there was a lot of work to be done. I just haven't touched the computer for a few weeks. That's what you get with a huge project. 

What happened then? The cutting garden in my backyard is turned upside down. We had a huge lawn, which was growing to all sides because it had nothing there to stop it.. And because of my back problems the bending was not ideal. We got the border at knee height and all my seedlings (which were growing since januari), can get in the ground. That is if we can find our irrigation pipe. When they were moving the sand we forgot to put a stick with one pipe (not very smart, I know), Now we think we know where it should have been (in the middle of my border), but we still haven't found it. I can't plant anything there yet.

Also my fruittrees are arrived. They are half stem fruittrees, but they have to grow to this height. In total I've planted five appletrees, 2 plumtrees, 2 hazelnut bushes, 1 pear, six raspberries (three species to enjoy the whole season) and 9 roses (for rosehips). In the fruityard the cranberry bushes are not yet deliverd and there also two raspberries where I'm patiently waiting for (ahum).

The grass is growing and not very hard because of the drought which we have in the Netherlands.

I'll put a picture soon of this two projects.

But there is more good news: my strawberrie plants have arrived. 100 plants in total, 7 different species (Lambada, Korona, Mara des Bois, Honeoye, Polka, Elsanta and Malwina).

De Lambada, Elsanta, Honeoye and Malwina have their fruit early in season. The Korona and Polka have fruit in the middle of the season. Mara des Bois covers the whole season (continuous fruit) and Malwina gives (extremely) late in the season).

This season I'm not expecting to much of strawberry yield, but the Fragaria Mara des Bois gives already flowers.

The strawberries are hidden under a blue net. I've read that birds can see the color blue very well (and I want them to not touch my strawberries, but I don't want them death).

Also I've found an English habit on the internet. In the Netherlands we use straw under the strawberry plants to keep the strawberries of the ground. But I've found out that I can't see all the fruit and that the straw can be moist. Therefor I loose good fruit. In England they use strawberry mats underneath plants. They are not for sale in the Netherlands, but on internet the environmental friendly strawberry mats were made of hennep mats. These turn into compost in about two years. Hennep mats are sold here, so I bought it (they are not in the pictures). So I've expect in one afternoon cutting hennep the job is finished and my strawberries are safe, clean and dry. Nothing tastes better than strawberries from you're own garden, so I can't wait for that to happen.