Inside: We’ve collected our favorite posts on strawberries, including planting, growing, and using the harvest in this roundup of strawberry posts.
A Roundup of Our Strawberry Posts
I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now. Compile the various posts I’ve been writing on the subject of strawberries. When I first started growing this favorite summer berry, I came at it from the perspective of a novice–at least concerning strawberries. Being a seasoned gardener sometimes gives said gardener an inflated sense of confidence extending to all things sprouting from soil. And then a plant comes along that, despite the usual growing techniques, doesn’t succeed. I set out to find out why. The following posts come from my research and experience. You’ll find a small taste, and if you want the full post, just click on the link.
How to Plant Strawberries
Sometimes we make things harder than they have to be. Case in point: how to plant strawberries. Though I’d been a seasoned gardener when I decided to try my hand at the sweet red berries, if I’m being honest, they intimidated me a little. Three different types of plants? Just what kind do I plant? Once I figured that out, the whole business with the crown and not planting them too deep left me confused. Plant them up to the roots, but not the stem, the directions said. Okay, could you be more specific? The perfectionist in me was afraid of making a mistake. And after I finally did get them in the ground, why didn’t they do very well?
This past spring as Mom worked with Bill from Sugar Grove Growers at the greenhouse, watching him trim down the roots of a strawberry plant and plunge it into dirt, she asked him about his methods.
“You can’t kill a strawberry plant,” he said.
After a few successful years of growing them, I’m inclined to agree.
My 3 Essential Tips for Growing Strawberries
Growing strawberries didn’t come easy to me. I’ve been raising the June-bearing variety for about a decade now, and it’s only been the last several years that I’ve finally gotten the hang of it. The problem wasn’t with the berries but rather the grower. I didn’t give them what they needed.
To begin with, the soil wasn’t in the best condition for growing the little gems. The bed needed more organic matter to get that perfect dark crumbly soil we gardeners love–obviously the strawberries do, too. And I didn’t spend enough time watering them. Not that they like their feet wet, but my plants were not getting what they required.
So what changed? I decided that if I wanted a good crop of strawberries, I needed to learn more about them and put that newfound knowledge into practice. And I realized that I had to devote the time to nurturing the plants even though the payback–handfuls and handfuls of fresh berries ripe for the picking–would be delayed a year or two. I focused on growing beautiful green plants and temporarily forgot about the fruit.
Renovating Strawberries the Simple Way
You’ve picked berries until you’re seeing them in your sleep, but finally–finally!–the harvest is over. The strawberries are happily tucked into their frozen home, awaiting their culinary future. So, what to do with that strawberry bed?
Maybe yours looks like mine. Where did those weeds come from, anyway? No matter, it’s time to take action. Time to renovate.
Take courage! It’s not easy taking a weed eater to a carpet of lush green leaves, but your plants will come back stronger than before. How do you actually go about renovating strawberries? First locate your spent plants. Those are the ones with stems that look woody and leaves that are brown around the edges–plants that didn’t yield as many berries. Older plants. For these I chop the leaves and the crown right down to the soil line.
How to Prepare Your Strawberry Plants for Winter
Normally by this time in November, I’m heading out to my strawberry bed to cover plants for winter. It’s not a difficult job, but here are a few things to keep in mind.
Wait until temperatures have fallen to around 20 degrees for several nights. This year it’s been unseasonably warm, so it’s actually not time to cover plants yet, but in a typical year by now I’ve already put a six- to eight-inch layer of hay or straw over my strawberry plants. With the colder temps the plants become dormant and won’t get moldy under the mulch.
Once the plants have been covered, check the mulch a day or two later. You might need to fill in with additional straw or hay in thinner places where the mulch has settled or blown away. Then pat yourself on the back! You’ve successfully put your babies to bed for the winter.
Uncovering Strawberries in Spring Time
Yes, it’s that time of year again–or, rather, it’s past that time because normally I remove the mulch from the strawberries in March. This spring has been unseasonably cold, and I’ve hesitated uncovering the plants until this past week. Nightly temperatures in the mid-twenties will do that to a gardener.
But we’ve had a break–or maybe an end to cold weather?–and that thick layer of mulch I placed on my strawberries back in late fall needed to come off so the tender plants can have access to the sun. Tuesday afternoon I removed the hay I’d used and the strawberry plants were a green-yellow with pale yellow stems. I peeked in on them this afternoon, just two days later, and the stems are turning a deep red color and the leaves are greening up nicely. I’m eager to see them after the rain they’re predicting tomorrow.
I never tire of watching things grow!
How to Care for Strawberries in Early Spring
A few points to consider before uncovering your plants for spring. Take a peek under the mulch and see if your strawberries are starting to grow. If so, remove about half of the mulch layer and place between rows. Weather permitting (nights above freezing), in a week or so you can take off the rest of the mulch, but keep it handy to recover plants in case of hard freezes–below 28 degrees F.
A Simple Fruit Dip for Strawberries, Plus 5 Ways to Use Up the Harvest
So it’s June and my strawberries have stopped bearing. (They’ve always been more May-bearing, actually.) It was a lovely harvest with plenty of fresh berries as well as a few gallons in my freezer for future use. The problem, if you can call it that, is I have limited room in said freezer. I need to start using up some of them to make room for the rest of the fruit and veggies coming my way this season. What follows are my suggestions for five delicious ways to use up strawberries.
All About Strawberries
I hope you enjoy our collection of strawberry posts. Much sweat, trial and error, and plain old determination have gone into the making of these posts through learning the lessons you can only learn through digging in the soil. May you have bountiful bowlfuls of beautiful red berries to grace your table.
Happy growing!
Resources and related posts:
Turn Sprouted Sweet Potatoes into Plants
Stay Cool with Water Infusions
Planting the Late Summer Garden
Past posts from this month:
Backyard Bird Feeding 101 (2017)
Help! The Weeds Have Taken Over my Garden (2017)
Neighborly Encouragement and the Power of Flowers (2018)
Compost 101 and Other Cheap Organic Fertilizers (2018)
Planting Sweet Potatoes in a Cardboard Box (2019)
10 Quick Fixes for the Neglected Garden (2019)