Sunday 24 June 2012

Best Buddies

The first strawberry of the season:


This is Strawberry Buddy, purchased earlier this year from Thompson & Morgan. As you can see the plant is in flower and also has its first ripe fruit. You can also see another buddy in the top right of the photo. Yes, at the same time as I noticed the ripe fruit, so did my dog.

The plants are growing in self-watering stacking pots, placed on pot stands with wheels, so they can easily be moved around the patio. Now that the plants are fruiting, I will have to cover them with netting to keep the birds off. However, it will take more than netting to keep Joey off them.

Strawberry Buddy is a relatively new ever-bearing variety. In other words, it crops throughout the summer, not just in June. In fact, it's not supposed to start cropping until mid-July and then continue until October. One of its parents is Strawberry Diamante. Oh, and the strawberry in the photo ?  It was delicious !!

And finally, a little conundrum for you. My calendar says that last Thursday was the first day of summer, and my diary says that today is midsummer. You can see where I'm going here, can't you ? Anyway, enjoy the rest of the summer, or should I say the rest of this week.

20 comments:

  1. To dobrze, że Twój piesek tylko patrzył na truskawkę, bo mój może by ją zjadł. Pozdrawiam i miłego letniego tygodnia.
    It is good that your dog just looked at the strawberry, because my might to be eaten. Regards and a nice summer week.

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    1. He would have eaten it if I had turned away.

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  2. I have just about finished the greenhouse strawberries - I have been eating them for about three weeks - the next to come are the hanging basket strawberries and then those on the plot. I seem to have them all over the place - although none of them are ever-bearing. Unfortunately, this year especially, the slugs have found those planted out in the ground, before I have managed to get to them. Little darlings (not)!!

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    1. I've lifted my stacking pots off the ground to keep the slugs and snails off. Only got to worry about the birds, the squirrel and the dog now.

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  3. Hey,did you say summer, did I miss it. It's still raining here :)

    I have loads of the alpine strawberries....the Grand-children love them because they are small and sweet. A friend gave me some strawberry plants which are just starting to fruit.

    I love that image of your little dog.....now tell me, is it a Cavalier??

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    1. Yes, he's a tricolor Cavalier King Charles spaniel.

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  4. Your strawberries may be of great variety.
    Does your dog does not like fruit?
    My loves strawberries and apples.

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    1. Yes, he loves fruit, especially strawberries, gooseberries, blueberries and apples. The only reason he doesn't eat the raspberries is because they are too high up.

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  5. I'm beginning to think I blinked & missed Summer. Maybe our calendars have been printed wrongly (we live in hope!)
    We've had 1 strawberry so far & the birds got at it before me!!! DOH!

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    1. I've got a lot of blueberries this year, and a bumper crop of blackbird chicks who just can't wait to get stuck in.

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  6. Strawberries, fabulous, I think I will add this to my list of edibles which I have started growing, well that will be for next year. I have often come across that confusing stuff about Summer, I get my head around it only to get confused again the following year, ah well old age doesn't come itself.

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    1. I think the midsummer bit must refer to warmer climes, not our good old British weather.

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  7. I like your dog's nose in the photo. He seems to be smelling the strawberry, or thinking about eating it! I'm not growing strawberries but will have to do this one day.

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    1. Oh he was definitely thinking about eating it. I only just got there first.

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  8. Did you have cream with your strawberry ;-) Mmmm! I love strawberries and grew them in a hanging basket one year but ended up leaving them for the birds and buying some for myself! I love the photo...and Cheryl beat me to it, I thought it was a little Cavalier! What gorgeous dogs they are, we have had four of them but all Blenheims.

    As for Summer, I have never understood how we can go from the first day of Summer to midsummer's day in the space of three days!!! Totally bizarre :-)

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    1. My previous dog was a Blenheim, a totally different character from Joey, but he loved strawberries too.

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  9. The deer ate my strawberries that were growing in the garden. I am in the process of planting them in pots on the back deck. Thanks for giving me a new variety in case the plants I am transplanting don't work out.

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    1. I don't grow any strawberries in the ground anymore because my dogs used to pee on them.

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  10. It's been summer here for a while and we're headed towards a heat wave. I have fond memories of collecting strawberries from my grandmothers garden when I was a kid. Yours look delicious. :o)

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    1. We're having really strange weather at the moment. Since March we've had a week of heatwave followed by a month of torrential rain, and then the pattern is repeated.

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