Gardening tips for May: Protect strawberries
Blackbirds are determined creatures so it's worth planning your campaign to protect your strawberries from attack, both from the ground and the sky.


The strawberry, the symbol of early summer, is on the way, and we must prepare for its arrival. If we wish to avoid losing the lot to the birds or finding it face down in the mud and full of holes, now is the time to attend to its needs.
Pack clean straw under the plants to give the fruits a soft mattress and deter the slug, then fix low metal arches along the row at intervals. Stretch netting over the arches to form a tunnel, and secure it well at all the edges-a blackbird can be surprisingly determined.
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Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.
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