Growing Luscious Strawberries.
I used the phrase growing ‘luscious’ because obviously not all strawberries are created equal! Strawberries have become one of the most popular fruits (or if you’re a true strawberry aficionado, maybe even a better fruit!). And whether you’re a new gardener or a decorated horticulturist, if you’re after remarkably tasty strawberries then I am your man!
If you dig a hole for your strawberries early in the spring, make sure that it is as deep as recommended by the supplier of your plants, as these brassicas can become heavy with soil and compost. Also dig in lots of organic matter, including well rotted garden compost to enrich the soil and ensure that your new plants get off to a good start.
Your hole should be prepared by placing a piece of weed filtered straw in the bottom of the hole. This will provide a Mulch to help reduce the weeds and keep the roots of your plants cool. Also take care not to place your strawberries too close together as they’ll need a bit of room to grow. Plant your seedling just below the surface of the soil. I’ve noticed that there are some really gorgeous bright red strawberries out in the wild that don’t show up too often on your street! So for every one you see, there could be a hundred stetimes of glory tucked away just waiting to get asked about.
After planting, ensure that you water in well and let the Mulch and compost stick to the soil and town it. This will provide your plants with all the nutrients they need.
Being a fruiting plant, strawberries will bear fruit at the end of the season. It’s when the swollen fruit begins to ripen that you can start to pick your berries. Don’t let the green sap run on the berry for too long or the fruit will rot. Next time we’ll look at the aftercare of your strawberry plants to ensure you have best year round production.
Luscious strawberry ‘Pickings’ can be grown in one of three ways – cultivated in the farm fashion, raised from seed and finally sitting in your vegetable garden as a decoration.
We sometimes get asked what your feed your precious berries and the obvious answer is sugar. Strawberries can be grown as a main crop in the typical small garden but they are equally happy in a raised or dwarf growing system. They don’t mind a little shade either.
The real magic of strawberries is in their transformation in the second year. The green leaves that form on the plant during the first year will turn to beautiful black berries. Also, the developing fruit will stop growing and will turn into a shiny reddish-brown as it ages.
When you grow strawberries using the recommended system the first year you need to make sure you plant lots of blackberries and that they are tightly spaced. By the time the second year comes along and the sap starts to flow you’ll have the perfect bumper crop!
Growing strawberries in a forest environment presents a few problems. access to the plants and berries should be good but remember that in a situation like this it’s easy to have some lost to hungry birds.
That’s about the worst imaginable problem you could have with growing strawberries in a forest. If you’re going to grow them in the forest then you’ll need to put some netting over the plants as standard. For these reasons I recommend growing your strawberries in a greenhouse. The requirements are modest and you should be able to select a good one from the start.
The final advice I can give you is to grab as many plants as you can as you’re going to be able to get some really nice ones which will then leave you with a great crop to enjoy over the coming months.
