7/5: First Strawberry Bite

I picked my first strawberry from the veg patch yesterday, a variety called Mara de Bois. But it looks like something beat me to taking the first bite. We have had lots of rains over the last 2 months and an army of slugs have miraculously appeared out of nowhere. Normally the land is too dry and stony to even get any slugs, but this year has been a different matter.  They have eaten trays of my seedling peppers, herbs and all sorts in the polytunnel. I've been fending them off my newly planted pepper seedlings with coffee grounds spread around the base, which seems to work so long as the band is wide enough and without breaks. For the strawberries I use a pine needle mulch which obviously needs a top up. Pine needles are a great mulch for strawberries helping to keep the soil acid and replicate their natural forest setting and it helps to keep the slugs off.

If only we had too many snails, a dash of garlic butter and voila!