Thursday, May 24, 2012

Strawberry Survival

The first thing I did upon returning from my old home in the desert southwest was check on my daughter's strawberry garden.  I wasn't sure what I would find.  She loves her strawberry garden, and if it had managed to die while we were away she'd be crushed.

Fortunately, they were still alive.  Not thriving, but alive.


Pretty scrawny, huh?

They hadn't received enough water while we were gone.  It had only rained once, and my husband told me that he hadn't really watered them much.  Indeed, if you look at the leaves you'll notice that some of them have browning along the edges.  Also, there are no new leaves.  The plants elected to not produce any extra foliage in order to conserve the water that was available to them.

Am I mad?  No.  My husband has a talent with technology, which is something I'm sorely lacking in, so that's what he spends time with.  Caring for plants is not in his list of common skills.  He kept the strawberries alive, which is all that I can ask.  In reality, he probably did much better with this than I would do, say, if he left me with instructions to update computer programs and perform network maintenance! We all do the best with the skills we have, and it'd be cruel to expect anything else.

My daughter and I did have a bit of excitement when we looked at the strawberry plants, though.  A very welcome surprise!


Berries were growing, and they were going to be large!  Due to the lack of water, there's a chance that they won't be as sweet as I'd like, but there's a chance that I'm wrong, so I'm going to have hope.

I'm also going to give them lots of TLC.

Cross your fingers for me!  The strawberry plants are alive, but they have a way to go before I'd call them healthy.  I'll need to pay extra attention to them.

Challenge accepted!

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