Hickories in the Fridge, Room in the Garden

I must've triggered something going back and reading my old post about strawberries because I have something new to say. When I was young, I had the experience of being transplanted. At the time it was horrible, worst experience of my life! And, I truly felt that God had ripped me up, moved me, and then said: "You now have room to grow!" And, of course, I was like "but...but...but, that wasn't what I wanted! I wanted to stay where I was and now?" Yeah, about that...we can fight it. Or we can own it.

Why do I say that? It was still the worst experience of my life, but to be fruitful, you need the space required to put down roots. And, literally, in a garden, each of those strawberries needs about a square foot around in order to produce. Its like God was saying: "You did, by the way, ask for this. To be fruitful, you need the space required to put down roots. And, roots aren't something you had room for there." Actually, God let me do my grousing and complaining and let me figure it out on my own. Love that about God, it doesn't stop him when we complain, but he listens!

Let me explain what I mean about space: When I weeded and thinned those strawberries, I found out that if strawberries don't have room, they will literally grow on top of one another. Its kind of like being a metaphorical sheep and eating the grass until the ground under the sheep opens up and turns into desert. I found 3-5 plants that I had thought were mature growing in a big clump. I pulled them apart and they were stacked on top of each other.

You might say: "They were just old." But, when strawberries are old, they become woody. I say this because I also found 1-2 strawberries from our first year here and they were extremely big and woody. The rest were young whippersnappers. Which means they were incredibly close together and no wonder I got almost no strawberries for three years!

At this point, I've realized that I don't have room for strawberries in the ground where I live. I put some into big pots instead and my plan is to use shepherds' hooks to make them grow out of the pots at an angle and look pretty as well as grow fruit. I am also keeping strawberry plants in the refrigerator this winter. There will be no apples or any fruit in that refrigerator because those will kill the strawberries. If you didn't know this already, the gases given off by fruit in the fridge will kill any young trees or plants you might put in there.

I love our one Freezer/Refrigerator. It is either one or the other, but not both. I can also set the temperature in it, unlike any other fridge I've ever had. The benefit is that I can give my plants a cold spell inside of it and/or save them for spring there. Its perfect because I can set it so that all of my plants that need a cold spell are at the same temperature. I also am going to be growing other plants like acorns, columbines, and hickory trees in there this winter. I may or may not be able to sell some in the spring depending on if they sell. If they don't sell, I will have to keep them another year and maybe going to camp to plant to replace trees that are coming down due to age.