This is a very busy time, the garden needs constant attention. Weeding, feeding and taking care of all your plants. I grow a lot of food, and I like to preserve it for use in the winter months. Preserving takes time, and that's not easy to find at this time of year. Even so, it's worth it! Here are strawberries I harvested at a couple of gardens. I washed them, crushed them and cooked them down to make strawberry jam. The strawberry on the right is all misshapen. It's called a fasciated strawberry. It looks as if a few strawberries had fused themselves together. This is usually caused by cold dry weather during the fall. There is another type of misshapen strawberry called a nubbin, it's tiny and looks as if the strawberry never grew to size. That condition can be caused by cold injury during flowering, or deficiencies in the soil, particularly a lack of calcium or boron. If it's been a very cold spring, and you had a hard frost, then you know that's what caused the strawberry to deform. If you're not sure, you should get your soil tested. You should get your soil tested every 2 to 3 years anyway. The most important thing in having a successful garden is soil health. You can't know what your soil lacks, has too much of, or what the pH is, without a soil test. I'll talk more about how to take a soil test, and where you can send it in another post.