Strawberry fields forever

These are Sparkle Strawberries from Fedco in Maine.  They arrived about 10 days ago, but this was the first day I could get out to plant them.  Thankfully, they stayed nicely in the fridge, waiting for me.  There are 50 plants and I thought I would have extras.  I had guesstimated the size of the bed and was off a bit.  I now have a 3x4 foot area with nothing in it.  They will send out runners and fill in the space, but I have another idea as well.

My neighbor, N, just came back from a trip to her mother's in Maine.  Her mom worked as a seasonal employee at one of the better known seed companies for the past 2 years.  As a result, N came home with lots of neat seeds.  I just started some rhubarb plants for us both.  It will be interesting to see how they do.  I haven't had the best luck with rhubarb.  It's odd, because most people can't kill it and I can't get it to survive transplanting.  Maybe from seed I'll have better luck.  I think it would be absolutely wonderful to have a strawberry and rhubarb bed.  They go so well together in dessert, why not in the garden. 

The kids are anxiously awaiting all the strawberries.  Hopefully, I'll get some this year.  They are meant to be harvested all year, and are said to fruit the first year.  That would be wonderful. 

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to get the potatoes in the ground and possibly some flower seeds.  There is so much going on here it is amazing and quite exciting.