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Hello Duncan I have very carefully netted my tomatoes to save my plants from birds and delinquent chooks. Will this be a problem for the Bees to do their thing. Great newsletter by the way

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Nov 17Liked by Duncan Cocking

Thank you

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Thanks for the great feedback and your support.

I have had quite a few variations of this question asked over the last fortnight. So I've included the topic of pollination in Tuesday's Q and A post. In short though, I don't have issues with pollination when my tomatoes are netted with insect netting and bees etc are excluded. So your plants will still develop tomatoes without the services of bees. Stay tuned for Tuesday's post.

Happy gardening

Duncan

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Hello Duncan,

I too have begun picking an abundance of strawberries this week.

I have had the same plants in the same patch for the past 5 years with barely noticeable difference in yield.

My annual preparation involves clipping off all of the remaining top growth in winter. Then I vigorously scarify the patch with a hand rake. I am left with almost bare ground with only the strongest plants with good roots left after this (abuse). I fertilise with chicken manure pellets and simply wait for spring and the plants come through

Regards Mark

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HI Mark,

Thanks for sharing your experience on growing strawberries. They are certainly resilient plants and incredibly productive. I'm not surprised that they are still productive after five years and I expect that mine will be the same.

Enjoy a summer rich in strawberries.

Duncan

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great info ... as always. I'll be planting some veggies out tomorrow

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Thanks Ina, enjoy the summer growing season.

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