This year, due to the wet weather, the patch was especially overgrown. The following photo is when I only had 1/4 of the patch left to weed. The whole patch was like what you see at the far end. Yes, it was bad!
If these were not such great and hardy strawberry plants I would have given up on it and plowed it under and started new. But I had gotten these plants a year after I came out here from a woman who pastured her horses here. She had brought them from Miles City, Montana for her strawberry patch so they had to be tough plants. And these plants are ever bearing, which means I get strawberries up until it freezes in the Fall. And the strawberries taste very good.
So I painstakingly pulled weeds and grass for hours and hours. My hands were sore.
The strawberries next to the rhubarb had been weeded once earlier this Spring. That is why they look better.
I was surprised to find as many plants as I did among the grass and weeds. It was a challenge to save the plants as the grass roots grew in and around the plants, and sometimes pulling grass also pulled up the plant too.
Completely weeded. For now, as I have no illusions that I got all the roots.
Not only did I find strawberry plants among the thick grass, I also found a number of strawberries as the birds could not reach them.
Tuesday night I let the horses into the fruit tree and garden area in order to eat the tall grass down. This is how I protect my strawberries and rhubarb. Even if the horses didn't eat the plants, they do like to roll in the dirt.
Yes, the grass is a little tall in the fruit tree and garden area.
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