Birds of a feather
The outside edges of the veg bed have been planted up, in the garden mix we're making.
The outside edges of the veg bed have been planted up, in the garden mix we're making. Down one side: chives, strawberries, the Mexican fleabane, more strawberries and the garlic chives. Down the other: more strawberries, keeping the jostaberry company.
The strawberries are a variety that doesn't send out runners, so they'll stay where they've been put. They were supermarket rescues, bought in spring, and have cropped well this year given the bargain bin state they arrived in.
Almost all of it is companion planting. Birds of a feather and all that. The chives are alliums, like the onions, shallots and garlic on the other side of the net, and the smell of the family is said to put pests off the scent of whatever grows beside it. The flowers earn their keep too: they bring in the pollinators the strawberries need, and the hoverflies, whose larvae eat aphids. The evidence for some of this is thinner than the folklore. The plants seem happy enough either way.
