2019 SFG Adventures in Hampstead, NC

As I said in my few 2018 posts, last year was a very unproductive year. On top of being very busy with work and not having the time to work in the garden, we were also affected by Hurricane Florence in Sept 2018. My home suffered some minimal to moderate damage but was/is livable. I know we were very fortunate and there were others that lost much more including my sister and mother. Both of their homes were flooded, and my mother and father had to move in with us.
{on a semi-funny note, the flood floated the 2 beds I made for mother about a 100' down the property into the woods without tipping them over}

Because of the sheer volume of damaged homes AND dealing with FEMA & the SBA, the recovery process has been very slow. Finally last week we got rid of the tarps and had our new roof installed. We are still waiting on estimates from contractors to do the work on the inside of the home. Additionally, we are still slogging through the process of getting my mother a new manufactured home. The crews were out there today to start the removal process so hopefully we can complete this in the next several weeks.

With that said, It is a new year and I am kinda glad to see 2018 go; however 2019 got off to a rocky start.
In mid January I had to have some unplanned surgery. It was nothing major. I had some infected tissue on my thigh that was making me sick and needed to be cut out. I was blessed to have my beautiful wife take care of my during my recovery.

In regards to my SFG's, I pulled the weeds from the beds. At some point I transplanted my strawberry runners into one of my 2x8 beds. So now I have a 4x4 and 2x6 planted with strawberries. I stuck some tulip bulbs in 2 other squares. My other 2x8 is essentially a peat moss farm. My DW and I were discussing making it an herb garden.

Now the surgery is behind me and things are starting to come together with the hurricane recovery so here's hoping it is the beginning of good times.

And as requested, here are some photos of my Table Tops. They need to be cleaned and painted this year

My goodness!    You have certainly had a full plate these last months.  I hope events this year are all positive from here on.

Thank you for posting photos of your beds.  May I have permission to steal copy your photos for show and tell if needed?

What a beautiful setup you have, Ralitaco. I'm so sorry for all you've gone through. 2018 was a bad year all around. Fingers crossed for 2019.

Sanderson, Thank you. And YES, you may share my photos.

Country, Thank you, mine too.

Here are some photos of my overloaded strawberry plants.
My question is if I can safely cull the herd and transplant them to another bed or the ground?

4x4 Strawberry Bed overrun with weeds

Strawberry plants with lots of dead leaves

Strawberry plants after pulling weeds and dead leaves

At least it looks a bit better, but still overplanted.

Here is one of my 2x8 beds. It has been overtaken by peat moss.

Should I pull the moss out or turn it under?

ralitaco wrote:Should I pull the moss out or turn it under?

Have you checked the pH of your soil?  Normally, moss only develops/grows on either shady/wet soil or acidic soil. If the soil tests negative, the pH needs to be raised to the neutral level.

OhioGardener wrote:Have you checked the pH of your soil?  Normally, moss only develops/grows on either shady/wet soil or acidic soil. If the soil tests negative, the pH needs to be raised to the neutral level.

No...I guess I will have to get a kit to do that. Thanks OG

I would carefully scrape off the moss and add more compost. I hate when moss starts fruiting. I cleaned all of the thick moss out of the cracks of the 3-car drive way and sidewalk. Yuck! I used a hefty screwdriver that is only used for weeding.

sanderson wrote:I would carefully scrape off the moss and add more compost.

Thanks, pending input from any others, I will get to scraping this week.

Duh, you will be removing a bit of Mel's Mix. What about mixing in some new coarse vermiculite with new compost?

sanderson wrote:What about mixing in some new coarse vermiculite with new compost?

I can do that, but I wasn't sure that the moss I am growing is the right kind for Mels Mix.
I wasn't sure if it needed to be dry or something.

Well, I was debating on whether or not I was going to do any planting this year, and I decided yes.
However, my beds are in need of some nutrients. The compost I made the last couple of years was lacking manure. It was pretty much leaves and some grass clippings with a smidge of vegetable cuttings. I found a couple of listings on CL for free composted horse manure so I was going to get a small pickup truck load.
So question...will I run into any issues if I add some directly to my beds with or without some of the compost from the leaves?

Also, this is probably a silly question, how can I tell if the composted horse manure is good? I mean, does it go bad / lose its nutrients?

I don't think you should add horse manure directly in the bed. Fresher horse manure is a good green for compost piles. As it ages, though, the undigested hay is left behind, needing more time to decompose.

I would run it through a compost pile first. Yes, aged horse manure can be one part of the blended compost for Mel's Mix. But, maybe bagged chicken or cow manure would be better to use this year as the weed seeds should be dead. You just got through fighting the moss and weeds and don't need any more right now. Plus, some veggie-based compost like Ecoscraps Compost or Ecoscraps Garden soil. Or all purpose Nature's Care Really Good Compost. Maybe even a 1/2" of coarse vermiculite to fluff things up.

IDK

So is it too late to relocate my strawberry plants.
I guess it doesn't matter because they are so overcrowded that they are not doing much.
If I kill some off by transplanting them I don't think I will be any worse off

I hope they transplant well.