Growing strawberries

Growing strawberries in the garden is one of the most rewarding food crops I've ever grown. We started our strawberry patch last year with about 6 plants donated from our friend Gus.

They spread like crazy last year. Every plant sent out 5 or 6 runners for new plants. This spring, I rearranged them in their 3'X5' area. They are planted pretty densely - spaced about every 6 or 8 inches. I threw down a sprinkling of composted manure - about 1/2 inch deep and mulched them with pine needles. Strawberries prefer slightly acidic soil in the 5.5-6.5 range and pine needles will help lower the pH. That said, the pine needles had no immediate affect on the soil pH. The soil in the strawberry bed is still just over 7.

I watered them 2-3 times per week with the rest of the vegetable garden, and I put netting over them once the berries started to set to protect them from critters. (It's important not to put the netting on too soon, because the bees were not too keen to go through the netting to the flowers, even though the holes were plenty large enough for them to fit).

Now, in early June, we are pulling in a bowl of berries every day! 3'x5' feet is just enough for everyone in our family of 4 to have fresh strawberries in the morning, but not enough to justify making jam.

The total cost for our strawberry endeavour was about $2 for netting and maybe $1 in compost, and it will yield several pints of strawberries over the course of 2-3 weeks. And WOW! these strawberries taste like... STRAWBERRIES! I've gotten used to the giant, red, flavorless variety that comes from the grocery store. These taste like strawberry candy - they are so intensely strawberry-flavored and so juicey.

After the fruit is finished, they will again send out runners, and we will have more strawberry plants than we have room for. Anyone want to start a strawberry patch???

See more of our strawberry growing adventures in Boston!