Sneaky Strawberries and Knocked Down Broccoli

Strawberries are sneaky little devils. Little did I know that I had 3 or 4 of these babies growing on the under side of one of the strawberry plants in the garden. Now all I am going to have to do is figure out when to pick these babies off, and to do that without destroying the plant in the process. Whats more interesting is it seems that the plants thats are blooming are the ones that are in the garden, and not the one in the topsy turvy, or in the adjunct pots in my yard. Those two plants are in the organic potting soil, and the garden soil is a different makeup. I am now wondering if maybe the PH and or sunlight has something to do with the lack of fruit on those two. It will be interesting to see how those play out over the next few weeks when these plants are supposed to be fruiting.

The second, and more disturbing item, is that three of the broccoli plants have toppled over. I have been watching these plants shoot up to become very tall over the past week or so. While this has been happening I had been wondering how these plants supported themselves with their seemingly top heavy nature.

Well, they dont do it very well. As of last night, 3 of the 7 have toppled. Whats more interesting, is that in my research on the internet, there is little mention of the plants toppling over. Most everything I have read states that broccoli develops hearty thick stems that help support a somewhat top heavy plant. The only thing I have come up with so far is that these plants do very well in cool wet climates, and with the weather we have been having, they have grown too much vertical, and not enough horizontal. So, I am going to get some dowells and ties this weekend and see if I can prop some of these plants up to see if they will survive.