[img]Hi All,

I am currently creating a new rock outlined strawberry patch. I'm mostly going to be planting new ones, but I have transplanted some older ones. I have a couple of questions. Does anyone see any issues with the beginning of the design? Any suggestions for what might go well next to, around or even in the patch? I do have chives, yarrow, elderberries and a peach tree quite close. Finally, I got some plants in today (and I was kind of not ready for them...they shipped fast!!!). I need to plant my red, black and white currants, some dwarf flowering cherries, a sugar cherry bush and an apricot tree. Any planting suggestions from your successes would be greatly appreciated. I already have a pretty successful strawberry patch, 7 apple trees, 2 pears, 2 cherries, 1 nectarine and 2 plums scattered around the yard, doing pretty well (aside from another attack from the winter moth catepillars!). If any of the new plants, go well with them, please advise.

Thanks

Strawberry patch and currant/flowering cherry, reminds me of my grandmas much larger berry farm.
She let the geese in to do alot of her weeding.
I am looking at a bunch of cotton patch goslings that my wife took out to the garden area for the first time.
They left the potatoes but did a number on a number of different weeds.
We are training weeder geese.

Do you have any recommendations based on your grandmother's garden?

Grandma had a acre of such plants.
The key was to grow plants together that geese did not eat.
She had a strain of straw berry that went wild, in fact is was part wild strawberry.
They grew where the geese grazed. You just had to move the geese out of the area when berries formed.
Geese were move back in to clean up the plants after picking. She then tended to get a second crop of strawberries later in the summer.
I would look for strawberries that can go wild in your area.

So long as the geese get buckets of water they graze.
They will also eat fruit. I have peaches and sand pears. I remove the bad fruit and the geese eat them on the ground.
Removing fruit on the ground help keep bugs and disease down.

So plant a mix of what grows well in your area.
Test some on geese to see if they will eat your plants.
Use geese to weed in areas that have plants they do not eat, or are too tall for them to reach.
Wrap all young trees so geese do not remove bark. Older trees with good layer of bark should be ok.

Geese shit is a great way to recycle organic matter. Can get 3 pound of shit per goose per day! I also pick greens and add it to the goose pen adding organics to this area.
I have put geese in areas and let them heavy graze than reseed when everything mashed down.

Also, use chicken tractors to clean out a area.

You can wipe out a area using poultry to overgraze it, while leaving a layer of manure when the poultry are moved.

Looks great! I also use improved strawberry plants as ground cover under my currants and gooseberries. In one of your pictures I see violets. I had a problem with them drowning out my strawberries this spring. I got behind on my thinning. I love violet flowers in my salad but had to dig a bunch out, deep roots. I would rather have more strawberries than violets lol.