Everybody loves strawberries! Strawberry pie, Strawberry Shortcake, plain ole strawberries! But those you get at the grocery store sure take a lot of sugar, because lets face it, they just are NOT sweet! The reason is, they have to be picked and shipped before they are red and ripe, before they are fully developed and sweet. You will not believe the difference in taste when you pick a red ripe strawberry and eat it within hours of picking.
WHERE:
Before buying plants, you need to carefully decide on the spot where you want to grow them. Strawberry plants are perennials, meaning they live more than one season, and you will want to give them a permanent home. Choose a spot that gets at least 6 hours of sun and where they can grow without being disturbed, and can sprawl out a bit.
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HOW:
For ease of care you might choose to go with raised beds. When shopping for my own raised beds, these were my favorites:
And if you are gardening on your patio or deck, I love the look of this one:
We had a huge garden when I was growing up and the strawberry bed was even humongous-er, more like a field of strawberries. My memory could be a little skewed, but I remember a lot of fresh strawberries and a lot of frozen ones later in the year. Since I’ve been grown, I have never grown any strawberries of my own and I decided that THIS is the year to do so.
For aesthetics and design reasons, I wanted multiple beds and since I am cheap frugal, I asked Mr. Menace if he wanted to make me some. Using 9 landscape timbers which cost us $37, he made me 3 small hexagon shaped beds. The first one in my list of favorites above, the hexagon shaped one, was what I was going to use, but at $110 each, three of them was going to be pricey! #thankyoumrmenace
These beds are just a smaller version of his own Apiary design, so he already had all the plans and kinks worked out and it didn’t take him long to cut the timbers and connect them into the hexagon shape. I did warn him though, that I wasn’t sure if this would hold enough plants to feed us, so he just might have to make me another set…
PREP:
Using the last of my homemade compost from last year filled these strawberry beds about half way and top soil was used to finish filling them. If you don’t have homemade compost, (I recommend you get started on a compost pile for next year!), you can purchase bagged compost and top soil. My favorite brand is Black Kow for manure, top soil and compost.
PLANTS:
So after you get them filled with dirt, its time to start planting. My little country hardware store had two varieties of strawberries for sale, so I bought a flat of each. One was an everbearing and one was June bearing. I guess I’ll be letting you know next year which one does better for me and which one I prefer taste wise. And actually I think I will like having the mixture of the two. The Junebearing, is suppose to have one heavy harvest of berries in (you guessed it!) June or maybe a little earlier here in Alabama. The Everbearing ones are suppose to have a more gradual and longer lasting harvest but fewer at a time.
From this angle, doesn’t this resemble a certain famous mouse with big black ears?
CARE:
You will get bigger and better fruit if you are courageous and pick off any and all blossoms the first year. OUCH! so hard to do… but then, I’m like that about growing things… I have a difficult time pulling up or getting rid of, or even composting, any plant that has the slightest touch of green… no matter how dead the rest of it is! #tenderhearted
After being in the ground for 3 or 4 weeks, the Everbearing strawberries do seem to look healthier than the June bearing ones. We’ve had a few chilly nights, no frost though, and I’m thinking this might be cold damage on the outer leaves (the middle of the plants look great!). Actually we did have one frost since I planted these, but I covered all the plants that night.
While the Everbearing ones look beautifully full and green!
I did force myself to pull off the blossoms and small berries that had formed, and will continue to do so for this summer. Fingers crossed that its worth it, because I am sure we did NOT do this when I was a kid. But I’ll call my Mama just to make sure.
The first year, it is recommended that you cut off the runners so that your plant can put all its energy into growing the main plant. Then the next year allow about 3 runners per plant, for new plants, but cut off the rest. It is also recommended that you mulch around the plants with straw to hold the berries off the dirt. Again though, we did not do this in the olden days. A little dirt on the berries never hurt us….
I am so anxious for berries!!! Have you grown strawberries? Let me know in the comments.
Michele Cook says
Do you need to cover strawberries in the winter for us folks who live slightly farther north? I have always wanted to grow strawberries but my father’s horror stories of picking runners and buds for days has left me wary. (my grandmother had 2 acres of strawberries that my dad had to care for!)
gwingal says
Wow! 2 ACRES!! In my memory…. thats how big our was too… but idk. Ok, just how far north? I am in Alabama now, but I grew up in North Carolina and no we didn’t cover ours. They might get nipped once in a while, but it won’t kill them. Let me know how far north! 🙂
linda7744 says
Lots of good information.. We tried them in a 50gal grow bag last summer and while they went crazy good all summer most of them died over the winter. I am thinking to much cold air into the grow bag..
gwingal says
If I am remembering right, you live quite a bit further north than me Linda, so I suspect you are right that the cold might have killed yours.
Dawn says
I’ve never grown strawberries, although it’s on my to-do list this year (and hubby’s too, as he’ll be building the boxes!) I’ve planned a blog post in a few weeks about strawberries, I guess great minds think alike! Maybe I’ll link to yours, if you don’t mind, so people can get another idea of what they can do for planters, as I really like yours that your hubby made.
gwingal says
Thanks Dawn! Won’t that be interesting to see how they do differently in the north and south?!
Torin says
I agree; strawberries are way better when you grow your own. I must say however, that the kind of strawberry you grow has a lot to do with the sweetness. Some years ago, I grew some wild strawberries from seed. They were tiny little things but oh my! they were the sweetest, most “strawberrish” things I’ve ever eaten. This year, I bought a hanging basket with 5 strawberry plants already in it. The label simply says “Strawberries”; no type listed. I’ve already picked a couple of fistfuls of fruit and although they are good, they are not near as sweet as the ones I grew before. I think I would like a large field of strawberries but then I wanted several fruit trees and now I have to thin what seems like thousands of fruit ( a very time consuming activity) from three trees so I cannot imagine having to tend a large field of strawberries.
gwingal says
Intriguing! I have heard that those teeny tiny wild strawberries that grow in the woods and up under my trees are delicious! And yes, I suspect that the old fashion, much more natural berries are much sweeter than any newfangled hybrid type that we’ve come up with! Oh and also, I have the “eyes are bigger than the stomach” problem about everything, including gardening, and want to do, in my mind, way more than I want to do bodily. 🙂
Linda clauss says
If you have free range chickens, how do you keep them from eating the berries, also birds?
gwingal says
Hi Linda. I would purchase a bird netting, and I may have to do that. When I was a kid, we had enough to share with the birds… LOL But as far as free ranage chickens, I’ve never had any, so I can’t answer that. Maybe a fence around the strawberry beds.
Laurie Ebert says
This is my first year for strawberries and yes it is VERY difficult to pick the flowers but I am. I didn’t know about the runners though, I’ll do that tonight.
I am about 30 miles south of Chicago and since I have 4 plants nestled in a 3×3 fabric raised bed I do think I should cover this winter. I’m just not sure with what or how.
Apparently, I’ll need to get some straw too.
If I could send a photo I would….lol. i also planted 3 blueberry bushes each in a 15 gal fabric bag.
Thanks for the info….Laurie
gwingal says
I suspect winters in Chicago are pretty cold! So I would think that you should protect your plants. You could use empty pots or a row covering.
You can send a photo to my email…