An innovation at Chez GrannyJ

How's this for an unusual idea for one's potted garden: strawberries in the strawberry pot? I've had this excellent big container for well over 15 years; I've had a few struggling berry plants in what passes for the "ground" for at least that long. But it never really occurred to me that I should go ahead and move a few of the latter into the former. Now the deed is done and my strawberries appear to be prospering.

Above, one of the transplants shortly after I moved it; below, today, it's much happier and beginning to leaf out. Next, a few berries? It certainly is much easier to keep the plants moist while using far less water, always a plus here in Arizona. Funny thing is that I never was able to introduce those little 6-pack annuals into the plant holes successfully -- over the years, I've had a succession of sad pansies, petunias and lobelias trying their best but ultimately giving up.

Obviously, the strawberry pot is meant for perennials which are serious about growing deeper roots than my little flowery annuals. Of course, it helps, too, that the pot is now three feet above the cement on my huge new pine stump -- it's easier to tend and no chance that the javelina are going to harvest my precious berries. About that stump? Story for another post.

Linkage: Yet another old-timer has just written a comment on that Miller Valley Memories post (see the right hand column); at this point, there are some 30+ comments, including a lot of memories, at that particular post. Next, hie yourself over to the Roundrock Journal for the June Festival of the Trees; I submitted the Knots and Gnarls post as a reminder that the beauty of trees lives on. And for a really, truly, cross-my-heart amazingl bird video, visit How Hawks See the World.