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Friday 4 July 2008

Attack of the killer strawberries

As I'm sure I've said before - I'm trying to grow some fruit and veg to help support the monkey house kitchen. I'm a great believer in fresh and seasonal food and would much prefer to eat some fresh veg grown in the garden than some super duper organic product that's been shipped half way around the world. I like to stand back and get a little perspective on these things, and not be blinded by the organic = best mantra. That said, I've used a bit of fertiliser, but no bug sprays, or anything. I believe if there are bugs, there's always a predator that will come along eventually and eat them (hopefully before they've devoured my crop!).
Talking of crop devouring I had to ask David to make the strawberries a cage - not because they're vicious and were attacking the other plants, but because the fieldfare were attacking them.
David made a less sturdy version at first, but after a couple of days of looking at it, consulting the blue prints and waiting for a couple of strawberries to ripen, the fieldfare carried out an organised attack, found their way in and ate them. And so this cage was built. So far it's kept them out. We've only got two plants, and I want to be able to eat at least a couple of strawberries from them.

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