Blush
While we were gone on
our honeymoon last fall, our deterrents
got stuck and the deer ate the recently transplanted strawberries down
to the ground. This spring, the plants grew so slowly, I lost
faith. After seeing the size of my father's plants a zone or two
south in April, I figured our measly plants wouldn't give much of any
strawberry harvest this year.
Then came warm weather,
and our strawberry plants grew like crazy. Before I knew it, they
were big and blooming, then the little fruits started to swell.
And now the first strawberry is blushing pink! Maybe we'll be
eating luscious strawberries by the end of the week.
Homegrown strawberries
are a lot like homegrown tomatoes --- once you eat one, you'll never
touch storebought again. No, I won't share. Plant your own!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Wow! That's quite a string of mishaps! I have really, really low standards for care of the farm while I'm gone --- if I come home and nothing burned down and every animal is alive, I'm happy.
I like your idea of farm swapping --- we may have to try that some time!!
For small plants like strawberries it would be quite simple to make a rectangular cuboid with a wooden frame and covered with chickenwire. Place it over your strawberry plants and fasten it to the ground with some stakes, and no deer or other animals will eat your strawberries!
A deluxe version might have hinged roof lockable with a latch so it is easier for you to pick the strawberries.
It seems to me that it might be easier to make individual enclosures for plots than to put a huge fence around your whole garden. Plus, the enclosures will keep out other animals than just deer.
Maybe you should invest in a greenhouse to grow the really tasty stuff? It might give you a longer growing season as well.