There are 5 strawberry plants in this bed. I believe the big one is one we had in a pot before we moved to Darwin. It seems to have survived. The others sprouted inbetween bricks and pavers nearby. The smallest was growing in a crack behind the hot water pipe in the side of the house.
I pulled them all up and replanted them maybe 6 weeks ago. All seem to be surviving (knock me over with a feather). But it’s been cool and wet for the past 2 months. I don’t think they would have handled the transplant in a normal spring.
There are a few flowers and tiny baby berries on the biggest 2 plants (so far).
The lettuce, silverbeet and celery were planted on Saturday 13 Nov. There is a squash/melon coming up on its own in the back – we’ll see how it goes. I’m pretty sure I’ve lost at least one lettuce to Tash, the neighbour’s cat. She used the fresh soil as a litter tray until I re-scatted it.
Update 4 May 2011: The strawberries thrived but didn’t taste fantastic so we ripped them out and have planted 3 new varieties. The lettuce was unproductive (suffered from the heat and lack of mulch), the silverbeet was marginal (ditto) and the celery was pretty good (ditto). Use this bed for leafy veggies in summer with plenty of mulch. In winter it’s a bit shady and cool.
Laura Rittenhouse's Gardening Journal 