strawberry bed planting

Yesterday, my order of 25 strawberry plants arrived from Park Seed Co. The variety that I purchased is an everbearing (day neutral) type called "Quinalt". I wasn't really expecting to receive the plants this week, so the new frame for the strawberry bed was still empty. Luckily, Lowe's was having a 50% off sale on garden soil today so I was saved. Clearly, this was a gardening emergency, so I took off from work early today. In total, I used 6 cubic feet of Miracle-Gro garden soil and about 2 cubic feat of leaf compost.

I should really get something for these blatant product shots

I tried to space the plants about 6-8 inches apart in all directions, being sure not to bury the crowns. Afterwards, I gave everything a good watering.

As I was cleaning up the driveway, I found about a half dozen earth worms underneath a bag of compost. They looked pretty sad living on a wet concrete slab, so I decided to upgraded their living arrangements.

I can't believe how sad these worms look

The worms seemed much happier in the new strawberry bed. And now they can get to work at aerating the new soil for me. So, everybody made out well in the end.

It's like night and day ... worms don't get much happier than this

I covered up the strawberry bed with some old opaque painting tarps so that the soil will stay moist for a few days and also so that the young plants don't get burned by the sun. Plus, it should keep the soil a little warmer and jump start root system development.