Our Strawberries are here!

June 6, 2011 by

Bowl of Strawberries

At last our strawberries are in full flow.  The kids have managed to snaffle the odd one or two, but after we’d had a couple with large bites in them (definitely not slug or children, maybe mouse or squirrel!), I covered them with fleece which gave the rest of the strawberries a chance to ripen without eager little hands picking them.  And so yesterday we had our first bowl of strawberries.  What can I say?  Absolutely delicious.  I could eat strawberries every day and never tire of them.  When you pick them fresh from the garden they taste great and they look amazing.  The skin is just so shiny and perfect.  And growing strawberries is so easy, all you need are some pots.  They are one of my very favourite fruits, and I hope our plants (which really do need replacing as they are 4 years old now) give us lots of juicy fruit over the next two weeks or so.  Having just one variety means the season is pitifully short, but we have grand strawberry plans for later in the year!


Filed in: Harvesting Tags:

Tidying up Strawberries

April 25, 2011 by

A warm spring day is the perfect time to clear out and tidy up your strawberry bed.  We grow our strawberries in long narrow containers.  We find these work really well as the fruit hangs neatly over the side, where it is out of the way of slugs and not sitting on damp soil, and the soil in the containers warms up more quickly, encouraging the plants to start growing earlier.  Over the winter we leave all the old leaves on to give a little protection from the weather, but once the warmer weather arrives it is time to clear all the debris out.  This includes old leaves and runners, new weeds, and slugs!  This is what one of our smaller containers looked like before I got started.

Strawberries before tidy up

Not a pretty sight!  After about 10 minutes of clearing out all the leaves and weeds this is how it looked.

Strawberries after tidy up

Much better!  The plants now have proper growing room and are not competing against weeds.  I did find a slug in there as well.  It’s very easy for them to hide under old growth, and they are definitely not welcome.  I gave the plants a sprinkling of fertilizer, a good water and put them in the fruit cage where their strawberries will be safe from any hungry blackbirds.  I had another 15 containers to clear out, but it was a lovely day and I took it easy.  My 10 year old daughter even came over to help and we had a lovely chat (mostly about Harry Potter!) as we worked.

Information on growing strawberries


Filed in: Plant Care Tags: ,