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How to Permaculture Strawberry Patch?

 
Joshua Plymouth
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I'm fascinated with the prospect of growing lots of strawberries, in a way that myself and my family can have some, and even have enough to sell. Not something too large though. The large scale industrial strawberry farms replant the strawberries each year, am I correct? however strawberries are perrenial. Is there a permaculture solution to growing strawberries that enables them to live in  a little area and just produce as they will as time goes on? I'm not completely against using poly as a way to block weeds, but I feel like using straw and mulch would a  healthier solution to keeping weeds down. What options exist that could guarantee me strawberries next year? seeing as it is now winter. Any thoughts or ideas are welcome, or other growers and their methods, in books or videos! Thanks!
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[Thumbnail for strawberry-patch.jpeg]
 
Phil Stevens
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Strawberries are perennial, but only sort of. A healthy crown will persist for a few years, but usually by the second or third it will start to decline. I like to keep a strawberry patch in a continual renewal cycle, and fortunately the plants make it easy to do with all the runners they produce. If a runner goes into a blank space, then it's done the work for me and put a new plant where it needs to be. I take the ones that trail outside the bed or are crowding each other and put them into small pots to root, then plant those in a new area or give them away.

Mulch, especially wood chip and bark, is a good way to keep strawberries happy and make weeding less of a chore. The downside is that it provides a haven for things that will eat and damage the fruit, like snails, slugs and pillbugs. A bit of wood ash around the plants can help with snails or slugs, but I don't really have an answer for the others that doesn't try to eat the strawberries as well (the ducks are banned from the vege garden and berry patch right when they would theoretically do a lot of good).
 
Dian Green
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I have seen some people talk about doing strawberries over aspargus, since their roots are high and low. Apparently, while the amounts for both are a bit lower, since you get both it's a net win.

I've been leaning towards trying it myself, I just need to lay out my aspargus in a longer, narrower patches than I had at my old place. It'd be great to be able to let the strawberries cover the bed and reduce the need for weeding!

I love to know if anyone here has had this work for them.

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Joseph Lofthouse
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I grow strawberries as a perennial in full sun. It works really well, as long as I kept the grass weeded out. It only takes one year of not weeding out the grass for a patch to succumb. Annual weeds don't compete well with the strawberries.

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Joshua Plymouth
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Joseph Lofthouse wrote:I grow strawberries as a perennial in full sun. It works really well, as long as I kept the grass weeded out. It only takes one year of not weeding out the grass for a patch to succumb. Annual weeds don't compete well with the strawberries.



I'd love to see pictures.
 
Eino Kenttä
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I occasionally find strawberries gone feral, including in grassy areas. I've seen at least two places with happy-looking strawberry plants persisting among the grass in old garden sites, many years after people stopped caring for them. Unfortunately, both of those areas were in semi-shade, so I can't report on the quality of the fruit (there was none). Maybe the shade is the reason they survive the competition from the grass? But, well, wild strawberries persist in sunny meadows without tending, at least decently long-term, so it should be possible. Somehow.
 
Riona Abhainn
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In high school my best friend gave me a pot of strawberry plants.  They fruited successfully 3 summers, and on the fourth summer they did not.  So in my experience they should be tended three summers and then they should be replaced with new plants, from runners or some other source.

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Barbara Simoes
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I planted strawberries as the groundcover layer in my front permaculture garden where I have perennial flowers near the sidewalk, and then behind those, Regent serviceberry shrubs and then asparagus. Beyond that, I have the fruit shrubs and trees like gooseberries, currants, figs, apples, honeyberries, rhubarb, herbs, garlic, cherries, lingonberries, jostaberries, medlar, pawpaws and American persimmons. I planted lots of bulbs in there as well for early spring color. The garden faces south, so it's ideal.  I planted day-neutral strawberries on one side (the entire 120' frontage is split in half with an entry point and rose arbor from the sidewalk) On the other side, I planted June-bearing.  The day-neutral berries are SO much better for me here.  They produce and produce and produce--up until and into November (in Vermont!)  I think I put in only 25 crowns of each, and now, three years later, the ground is completely covered because of the runners.  (120' x 20' or so.) The June-bearers produce lots of foliage and runners, just not so many berries!

Moisture is held in the soil because of this and the goal is to not have to water at all.  Last year was such a rainy summer that it wasn't a fair test in that regard.  I have strawberries every morning for breakfast, mixed in with cottage cheese and a little sweetener, it's like having cheesecake for breakfast...it is so good!  Yes, the plants have grown all through the asparagus and seem to be up to the task of suppressing  weeds.  There are no more clear paths for walking, although they don't appreciate being stepped on, and at this point, it's unavoidable, so I suppose I will be making paths by putting in stepping stones, so it's clear for anyone who joins me in harvesting.  I'm also thinking that after this upcoming June-bearing harvest, I might replace those plants with day-neutral ones provided from the runners. All of the runners are even trying to take hold on the sidewalk (south side) and the driveway on the east side!

One concern is that as the plants age and become less productive, I won't be able to tell the difference between old and new plants.  My hope is that the newer, more vigorous plants will just overtake the declining ones...Obviously, I didn't plant them so that it's easy to tell as it would have been with rows.  Does anyone have experience with this style of planting and how to keep production up?  I want to have my strawberry "cheesecake" for breakfast!
 
Cris Fellows
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I have tried to tuck in strawberries as companions in other plantings,  but as has been mentioned they really like full sun, so unless they are on the open south side,  that does not work well.   I like straw best as mulch, if the berries are heavy they don't get bruised as they do on wood chips.   My daughter is having great success with disconnecting runners from their parent after they have rooted,  then filling in bare spots or starting a new patch.

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Anna Demb
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Ruth Stout had a method she described in her book "The Ruth Stout No-work Gardening Book" at the end of chapter 4 (P. 92 in the Bantam paperback from 1973!). Basically she plants strawberry plants 3 ft apart and then allows only 1 runner up and 1 runner down from each plant, to fill in the row to 12" spacing. Also she plants in the fall! A year from the following spring, after harvesting the first crop, she pulls out the original mother plants and leaves the runner plants, then lets those send out only enough runners to fill the holes left by the pulled mother plants. If you have the discipline to follow this system, it could go on forever. Of course, she also heavily mulches these beds.

I think this is a great solution, but in my own garden, in addition to slugs and pill bugs, which I can kinda handle, I'm frustrated by small animals (squirrels? skunks?bunnies?) taking bites out of most of the berries and scattering them around the yard, so we humans seldom get any. Anyone have any solutions for that?
 
Jenny Wright
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Anna Demb wrote:

I think this is a great solution, but in my own garden, in addition to slugs and pill bugs, which I can kinda handle, I'm frustrated by small animals (squirrels? skunks?bunnies?) taking bites out of most of the berries and scattering them around the yard, so we humans seldom get any. Anyone have any solutions for that?



In my experience, the mammals and birds leave the white varieties of strawberries alone, especially if I have red strawberries scattered around too.  You actually need the red strawberries to cross pollinate the white varieties.  There are some really lovely flavored white berries, from tiny alpine sized ones to larger standard ones.  And as a human, I can identify when they are ripe easier than the birds and mammals- some varieties turn an extremely pale pink at their peak ripeness and for others, the seeds turn red when they are ripe.
 
Jenny Wright
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Dian Green wrote:I have seen some people talk about doing strawberries over aspargus, since their roots are high and low. Apparently, while the amounts for both are a bit lower, since you get both it's a net win...

I love to know if anyone here has had this work for them.



I have some of my beds set up this way.  I learned to do it from a friend of mine who had her asparagus/strawberry beds well established and had awesome yields all summer long.  She used an alpine strawberry variety that grew tallish (for a strawberry) and fertilized heavily with her animals' manure and a deep straw mulch every winter.  She'd also thin the plants once a year in the fall.  She never had to replant anything- alpine strawberries send out runners and grow from seed.  I've been copying her, except I don't have her backyard source of manure so I haven't fertilized as heavily and that has made a difference with mine not being as vigorous or productive after the first year.  Strawberries and asparagus are very high feeders so they need rich soil.
 
Joseph Lofthouse
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Day neutral strawberry plants.
strawberry-2013-06.1346.jpg
strawberry plant
strawberry plant

Landrace Gardening, author
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Barbara Simoes
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Good point about them both being heavy feeders; I guess I'll have to offer to help clean out my neighbor's chicken pen!
 
roberta mccanse
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A few years ago I planted a pretty box full of strawberry plants in elevated steps. They thrived and as they were about to ripen the chipmunks found and ate them all. (“&@$!/) So the next year I planted some in hanging baskets on my south facing patio. They were safe from the chipmunks and deer but even with inconvenient netting the birds got a lot of them. I haven’t tried strawberries since.

On the other hand I decided to plant some strawberry looking “stepables” as ground cover in a semi shade garden. They are miniature strawberry plants that have spread really well. They produce little, probably inedible, berries. It would take about fifty of them to make a handful so they don’t contribute significantly to our diet. They don’t seem to mind when I step on them asI tend other plants and I enjoy watching them “run” about.

Each generation has its own rendezvous with the land... by choice or by default we will carve out a land legacy for our heirs. (Stewart Udall)

 
Anna Demb
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Jenny Wright wrote:

In my experience, the mammals and birds leave the white varieties of strawberries alone, especially if I have red strawberries scattered around too.  You actually need the red strawberries to cross pollinate the white varieties.  



great idea, Jenny. Are there full-sized varieties you can recommend? thanks!
 
Anthony Powell
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Nice to have some advice for when I get my big strawberry plants (grown from seeds off bought fruit) actually fruit - I think I've too much shade.
I have no issues with wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca) which ramps away under my bushes and produce tiny fruits, more likely to hit my palette rather than punnet; and alpine strawberry which prefers pot growing, has no runners but larger fruit into autumn.
Looking at a local saffron farm (Cheshire, UK), I wonder if their fields could yield harvests of strawberries and asparagus:
picking saffron flowers
(copyright The Cheshire Saffron Farm)
 
Ashley Cottonwood
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I'm hoping to start a permie berry farm at my sister's property. Next Spring I hope to start with a large strawberry patch. I'm currently trying to figure out the best way to suppress crab grass and other unwanted plants. I currently playing with a combination of bark mulch and companion plants.  

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Hans Quistorff
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I posted pictures of planting them is a rock wall embankment 7 years ago. permaculture rocks.  I did not tend to it the last few years so only one plant this year.  Put fertile soil between rocks and direct runners to the spaces.  Dandelions were the worst weed problem; if they got a good start the roots were difficult to remove  

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Ra Kenworth
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Dian Green wrote:I have seen some people talk about doing strawberries over aspargus, since their roots are high and low. Apparently, while the amounts for both are a bit lower, since you get both it's a net win.

I've been leaning towards trying it myself, I just need to lay out my aspargus in a longer, narrower patches than I had at my old place. It'd be great to be able to let the strawberries cover the bed and reduce the need for weeding!

I love to know if anyone here has had this work for them.



I use wild strawberries for a cover crop, notice the asparagus and wild cherry (started from a sucker) and chives. I prefer wild strawberries because I don't find they need any watering and for a drought season like last year I just eat what they produce and let them do their thing and grow roots, but growing in compost enriched soil over cardboard to block grass, they usually produce 3/8" berries that are far superior to cultivated.
20230704_120958.jpg
Wild strawberry cover crop
Wild strawberry cover crop
 
Ra Kenworth
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the asparagus is hard to see, but look for the tops;

wild strawberries can be 5/8" in good years (probably always if I watered but I just eat them fresh and the smaller the better)
 
Jenny Wright
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Anna Demb wrote:

Jenny Wright wrote:

In my experience, the mammals and birds leave the white varieties of strawberries alone, especially if I have red strawberries scattered around too.  You actually need the red strawberries to cross pollinate the white varieties.  



great idea, Jenny. Are there full-sized varieties you can recommend? thanks!



I've grown to the white Pineberry and Aloha berries. The Pineberries are smaller than the Aloha ones, like long and skinny. The Aloha berries have a more traditional shape. They are both delicious.

There is a Japanese variety I've seen online that they grow huge white berries but I haven't tasted it and I don't know if it's available in the States. I've seen it on those YouTube videos where they show "cool things Japan has that we don't". 😂 They package them individually and they are crazy expensive.
 
Jenny Wright
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Jenny Wright wrote:

There is a Japanese variety I've seen online that they grow huge white berries but I haven't tasted it and I don't know if it's available in the States. I've seen it on those YouTube videos where they show "cool things Japan has that we don't". 😂 They package them individually and they are crazy expensive.


https://zenpop.jp/en/blog/post/5379/white-strawberries-from-japan#:~:text=Even%20with%20refining%20the%20process,hefty%20price%20tag%20makes%20sense.
Here's an article that lists the names of a bunch of the Japanese white strawberry varieties.
 
Donna Lynn
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Last spring I planted a new bed of asparagus and strawberries together.  Due to increased caregiving duties, I got them all planted quite late.  I thought they had dried out too much since nothing much happened for a few months other than weeds growing.  I only was able to weed a few times over the summer.  I did manage to water well during their first month or so but that's about it.  Lo and behold, in early fall I went out to check on the bed (which was totally overgrown with weeds,) and underneath all the different types of weeds were quite a few thin asparagus tops, and even a bunch of strawberry plants that had obviously spread from runners.   So despite my unfortunate neglect, they managed to hang in there and get established.  I planted them in an east-west bed about 3' deep (against a privacy fence on the north side) by about 40' long.  It gets full sun all day.  I made the bed by covering lawn with cardboard, then adding topsoil on top of that to plant in.  The asparagus crowns went down first on top of a thin layer of topsoil, then more soil was added before planting the strawberries.  So far so good, better than I had hoped!    

I also have volunteer strawberries that escaped a pot into an area between the house and garage that gets only 3-4 hours of sun a day.  the strawberries have spread over the whole area as a ground cover under a fig tree and some ornamental plants.  They produce well, but due to not enough sun, the berries are not as sweet as they should be.  Juicy and pretty, but not super sweet.

AND... we had "small squirrels" (like a cross between a chipmunk and a squirrel, with squirrel coloring but super fast like a chipmunk and very aggressive) infest us a few years back, and those little buggers would leave half-eaten beautifully ripe strawberries on top of our deck posts, taunting us routinely!  So hubby started trapping and relocating them with a vengeance.  (They also chewed wires and stuff under and in the engine compartment of our cargo van costing us hundreds of dollars in repairs, as well as damaging my potted fruiting plants that were outside on the deck for the summer.)  They had run off the larger "normal" squirrels (which had always stayed away from the house and my plantings and never had done automotive damage) and taken up residence in our largest black walnut trees.  Finally this year I think hubs got the last of them trapped, because I've recently seen the return of the larger, slower, less aggressive "normal" squirrels to the coveted black walnut trees in our yard.  We used three live traps, different baits, different placements, experimenting until we hit on a good combination.  A few died in the traps before they could be relocated, but most were able to be released in "wild" wooded areas.  Our cat even somehow managed to catch and kill one.  Those buggers learn fast and are in it to win it, you have to be willing to risk killing them to defend your homestead from their destruction.  No such thing as live and let live with those small squirrels.  The big ones we happily coexist with as they are content with the black walnuts for the most part.  You have to relocate squirrels several miles away (but please not near anyone else's house or homestead though, as that's how I think we "acquired" them in the first place!) to be sure they won't return.   Some people even say to be sure there is a creek or wide highway between you and where they are relocated if it's less than 5 miles away.  I hated to spend the gas money on those trips, but it was cheaper than another vehicle repair or replacing a $70 potted tropical fruiting plant!  
 
Chard Irking
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For growing strawberries in a smaller space, I recommend trying out plastic laundry bins or other upcycled containers with holes. We planted two of these with 25 bare root plants each three years ago when we weren't able to have an in-ground garden. They produced a reliable stream of berries. Since each plant has limited room to grow, you'll get larger (but fewer) strawberries if you pick all but one flower off of each plant.

Having them elevated like this also keeps more of the bugs and critters out of them. When the plants send out runners, you can direct them to the empty plugs, and they will start new plants the next year.

We planted marigolds as a companion plant in the top of ours to attract pollinators and deter pests. Another benefit is you can move the containers around throughout the growing season so they are always in an optimal location.

We'll be moving to a more permanent location soon, and I am excited to plant a bed of asparagus and strawberries to see how it turns out!
 
Anthony Powell
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Jenny Wright wrote:

There is a Japanese variety I've seen online that they grow huge white berries but I haven't tasted it and I don't know if it's available in the States. I've seen it on those YouTube videos where they show "cool things Japan has that we don't". 😂 They package them individually and they are crazy expensive.



If those Japanese whites are so expensive, it sounds like they need a lot of mollycoddling.
Flavour can be a matter of what fungi are helping the roots, which can be adjusted by substrate. Mycorrhiza can also influence pollination and fruit shape. Per Merlin Sheldrake's book, Entangled Life.
 
Barbara Simoes
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I think it's really important to line the outside edge of any bed with some sort of non-spreading impenetrable plant on the edges.  I use a lot of hosta or even daylilies.  They make a clean looking edge that die down in the winter, but the plant really covers the soil so that nothing grows beneath.  Here, the hosta (rhubarb, daylilies) form such a solid block of root that it really acts as a barrier.  Sometimes, some creeping Charlie sneaks through, but it makes it much more manageable. What's also great about these plants is that they can be dug up and divided over and over.  I love the hosta because when I need to mow the lawn, it is high enough so that it doesn't get cut cut creates that neat border to follow.   Many don't think it can grow in the sun, but mine does just fine.  Of course, it is deeper green in the shade, but as my trees grow within my food forest, that will only get better! Ironically, with all of the runners that strawberries put out, many try to escape or even root beneath the hosta leaves.  When picking, I find many a treasure beneath them!  

Ashley Cottonwood wrote:I'm hoping to start a permie berry farm at my sister's property. Next Spring I hope to start with a large strawberry patch. I'm currently trying to figure out the best way to suppress crab grass and other unwanted plants. I currently playing with a combination of bark mulch and companion plants.  

 
Anna Demb
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Jenny Wright wrote:
I've grown the white Pineberry and Aloha berries.

There is a Japanese variety I've seen online that they grow huge white berries but I haven't tasted it and I don't know if it's available in the States. I've seen it on those YouTube videos where they show "cool things Japan has that we don't". 😂 They package them individually and they are crazy expensive.



Thank you! I noticed someone on Etsy selling seeds of Japanese varieties  for $17-18--maybe worth it if they survive as perennials!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RWSEEDS?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=1303998583&from_page=listing
 
Anna Demb
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Barbara Simoes wrote:I think it's really important to line the outside edge of any bed with some sort of non-spreading impenetrable plant on the edges.  I use a lot of hosta or even daylilies.



I love this! I'm going to try it. (I  have creeping charlie problems too)
 
Jenny Wright
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Barbara Simoes wrote:I think it's really important to line the outside edge of any bed with some sort of non-spreading impenetrable plant on the edges.  I use a lot of hosta or even daylilies.  They make a clean looking edge that die down in the winter, but the plant really covers the soil so that nothing grows beneath.  



I have a huge problem with buttercup competing with the strawberries when I use the strawberries as ground cover.  The buttercup does have a hard time getting into the daylilies so I will have to try it as a border.
 
Ben Zumeta
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I have found strawberries respond as well to hugelkulture as any other plant. They produce earlier and longer, and do not go through as much of a mid-summer drop off in production. I believe this is due to less water stress, fungal soil, and moderated temperature extremes.

This is all just my opinion based on a flawed memory

 
Cris Fellows
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Jenny Wright wrote:

Barbara Simoes wrote:

I have a huge problem with buttercup competing with the strawberries when I use the strawberries as ground cover.  The buttercup does have a hard time getting into the daylilies so I will have to try it as a border.






Same problem.   This fall I will try digging out all the buttercup and relocating a patch of daylily here.   Thanks for the suggestion

Together is our favorite place to be

 
Cécile Stelzer Johnson
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Dian Green wrote:I have seen some people talk about doing strawberries over aspargus, since their roots are high and low. Apparently, while the amounts for both are a bit lower, since you get both it's a net win.

I've been leaning towards trying it myself, I just need to lay out my aspargus in a longer, narrower patches than I had at my old place. It'd be great to be able to let the strawberries cover the bed and reduce the need for weeding!

I love to know if anyone here has had this work for them.




I do have 50 "Millennial" asparagus spread in 4 raised beds. To this, I added a number of strawberries and it worked, for a while... You must still be extremely diligent in covering the strawberries in straw in winter. Last winter, I didn't: It was a a mild winter and I didn't have straw. this year, I cam back to a real mess, with Johnson grass that had invaded all 4 beds. It will be a lot of work to retrieve!
Realize also that the fertilization of strawberries and asparagus differs:  Strawberries need a balanced fertilizer [10-10-10] while for asparagus, it is more like [5-10-10] or even [5-24-24] I use chicken manure and/or comfrey tea. If you use the artificial stuff, you can try to put the 10-10-10 more specifically on the strawberries and the other one on the asparagus, since those are in hills.
As far as strawberries being "perennials", well, not really: they do tend to peter out after 2 years. They then leave you with a tangled mess of dry runners that is hard to remove with new strawberry plants mixed in. Pulling the runners will lift the new strawberries that you will then have to replant, so it is 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.
The new strawberry plants are easy to find right after harvest because they are at the end of nice green runners. This year, I am planning to do what the "commercials" do to keep the patch new [or at least my own version of it]: Pick the new plants in the summer and immediately place them in their own bed: You can crowd them at that time because they will be new and won't have long runners. Then in the fall, do your best to rid the patch of weeds and of the older plants.
Later, there is still time to replant them in the old bed, among the asparagus, and cover them with straw.
This guy explains the logic behind what the commercials do.
https://strawberryplants.org/fall-strawberry-plants/

$10.00 is a donation. $1,000 is an investment, $1,000,000 is a purchase.

 
David Wieland
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Anna Demb wrote:
I think this is a great solution, but in my own garden, in addition to slugs and pill bugs, which I can kinda handle, I'm frustrated by small animals (squirrels? skunks?bunnies?) taking bites out of most of the berries and scattering them around the yard, so we humans seldom get any. Anyone have any solutions for that?


I have that experience but no solutions. Judging by the peck holes I've seen also, birds are another strawberry pest, despite their help with insects.

As a temporary solution, I lifted the healthiest plants from the weedy bed and planted them in a soil-filled salvaged length of eavestrough mounted on posts. That seems to protect them from rodents and makes weeding much easier, but it's not much of a bed. I doubt that a truly permanent strawberry patch is possible. The only low maintenance berries I know of grow on bushes and vines, and even those need timely tending for a good crop.
 
j souther
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I have strawberries under the high bush blueberries. Now that the strawberries are starting to ripen, we went ahead and put up the bird net which protects both of the berries. I have been letting my ducks through that area of the garden for most of the winter and spring, and I can see a definite impact on slug and roly poly populations. The ladies often go there first, and seem very busy eating whatever they are finding. They don't seem interested in the fruit at all, not sure why. And the plants are now well-established enough to withstand a bit of flat-footed tromping.

My biggest problem this year has been too much rain. The berries are rotting before they ripen. They're everbearing, so maybe the next round of blossoms will have a better chance of ripening. Right now, though, it's not looking good, and we have more rain forecasted today and most of next week.
 
Judielaine Bush
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I'm in Piedmont North Carolina and have two happy stories of strawberries

Directly to the east of my rabbit & deer fenced  garden plot is a wall of trees between 50 and 90', mixed pines and deciduous. I think the south trees stop shading around early February.  The shade from the east affects the eastmost 3-4 foot of my beds (entertaining to watch corn or okra height decline so rapidly at a certain point.

My blackberry plot has a wall of trees at 90' to the west, many pines, some deciduous. It's closer to the south treeline,so i think the shade from the south stops being significant in March sometime.

In mid October 2022 i planted half a flat of Camarosa short-day strawberry on a ten foot row in the garden plot and along the northmost (thus less shaded) ten foot or so of the blackberries. I mulched with ground up leaves from a tulip poplar. The blackberries grow in with our pets, so those strawberry plants are strictly for ground cover.  I mulched with straw.

Lovely production even on the shady end of the garden in spring 2023. The garden got out of hand in the fall and was overrun with stilt grass.  Plenty of runners sent out. I've done nothing.  This spring the stilt grass is sprouting thickly under the canopy of berries -- and maybe discourages pests by hiding the berries which are ripening just fine? Don't know:  we had over-dry weather for the first four or five harvests so that would discourage slugs. Know cotton rats are in the garden and possibly turtles. (SOmething has made an interesting trail that cuts through the strawberries.) The first harvest after a weekend of rain seems fine just fine.

The groundcover strawberries under the blackberries is doing great. It's thick and seems to be suppressing many weeds. Very pleased.

Living in Piedmont NC, attempting restoration of four acres

 
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Judielaine Bush wrote:

The groundcover strawberries under the blackberries is doing great. It's thick and seems to be suppressing many weeds. Very pleased.


When I was thinning out strawberries two years ago, I stuck the healthy looking plants in random bare spots in my raised beds. This year there is a barely an unclaimed spot by those strawberries. Leeks are growing through them, and a couple newly planted asparagus. The only thing holding them off are the violets, which are advancing from the opposite side.

These are June bearing so they send out a LOT of runners.

I plan to clear just select spots for my tomatoes and peppers because they are acting as such a great ground cover.

(I also have rats living there and making trails under the leaves. I think unfortunately leafy ground cover invites rodents.)
 
Carol Helms
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I have a 20’ x 20’ June bearing strawberry patch. In spring or fall as it needs it I spread peat moss around the plants to reduce the weeds. The plants are so thick that not much has room to take hold and what does I am diligent about removing. When I start seeing some dying back of the older plants. I’ll dig them out and replace them with the baby plants which are numerous.

Birds being birds they like to take a bite out of multiple berries instead of eating just one whole berry. My solution has been to throw the damaged berries over the fence in one area of the lawn. Many birds are attracted to the red berries in the green grass and will choose to go there first over the enclosed garden. I do the same inside the garden for the mouse (or mice). One secluded spot gets all the damaged fruit and vegetables. It seems they would rather grab the food and run rather than risk roaming unprotected through the garden. Both strategies help reduce, not eliminate loss.  

Last year my family ate our fill, gave away multiple quarts to neighbors and friends, froze 18 gal of berries and made 10 pints of jelly. This year the plants are again loaded with flowers so I have been baking away trying use up last years harvest before I’m (hopefully and thankfully) inundated again.
 
This cake looks terrible, but it tastes great! Now take a bite out of this tiny ad:
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