Today we completed another task to keep our strawberries safe from ground pests, namely goddamn horrible snails and from the air, pesky strawberry eating birds. We like birds, except, when they decide to eat our strawberries then it’s all-out war!
To provide protection form the ground attackers, the gardening guru placed dry straw around each strawberry plant. It seems snails do not like the ‘feel’ of straw. Dry straw also creates a good mulch help the plant roots. Strawberries’ do not like having their roots overly wet. Straw is a good material for this purpose it also provides a soft ‘bed’ to keep the actual strawberries when they come, off the ground and dry.
Depending on the crop, we may place flat rocks or some pallet timber under the fruit to further protect the strawberries, all going well, we will see.
Protection from the air attackers is provided by netting. We erected some hoops of plastic half inch Hydrodare Waterpipe tubing, this is supported by metal rod spikes hammered into the ground. These hoops support a light net which is simply held down around the edges with some small rocks. This will allow us to water and feed without having to remove the net.
All these measures should keep the attackers away from their quarry and leave the fruit for the people who grew it.
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