Tidying the Strawberries

It's about two months late, but we spent an hour tidying up the strawberry bed this evening. The netting that covers it is out-of-the-box: never cut down to size, and a bit of a tangled mess at the edge of the bed. We trimmed that down (much improving accessibility), and cleared some of the dead leaves, detritus, and weeds from around the plants. A big pile of straw then made its way onto the bed, to protect the nascent fruits.

I note that, when doing the same thing last June, I decried it as a job left too late. I'm about seven weeks earlier...and it still seems too late. I think the rapid growth (due to the very warm March and April) has hastened things along: it would have been a much easier job if done in February, and I could have removed a lot more dead foliage without fear of disturbing the strawberries. Never mind: I'm sure they'll cope.