Controversially, I’m not a huge fan of the sun or scorching hot days (which we fortunately don’t get many of here in Scotland) but there are a few things that fuel my love of summer and one is most definitely freshly picked, sun-ripened and sun-warmed strawberries!
Our first year of growing them, we tried pots. It was fine and we did get some strawberries but it was hard work to keep the pots adequately and consistently watered (without watering them too much, which makes the fruits bland). But really, the pots didn’t give the plants the conditions needed to produce nearly enough to keep us and the kids going! So, after some research and inspiration from fellow Instagrammers, my husband and I decided to take the plunge and dedicate a bed exclusively to strawberries.
Our first strawberry bed was one of the smaller ones and it absolutely thrived. We bought a handful of bare root plants and by year two, we were growing more than we could eat. Year three was absolutely glorious and the strawberries were the tastiest yet. But, by year four, the bed felt too congested thanks to the runners and a lot of the plants weren’t producing the huge, deliciously sweet berries we’d had the previous years. It could have been down to the weather but I suspect the plants needed a bit of a refresh so I decided to pot up some runners and some newly rooted plants and move them over to a new (bigger!) bed.
There was nothing fancy or technical going on here. I literally picked the ones I wanted and dug up some clumps of plants. I had initially thought it would have been more refined and dignified than this but if you’ve ever tried to dig up an established strawberry bed, you’ll know that the roots are impossibly and inextricably linked together! Digging up clumps was really the best I could hope for.
Last spring, I moved them over to the new bed, spacing them out and adding some fresh compost. In the summer, we still got lots of strawberries because the plants weren’t really new and I moved them in a way that kept their rootballs pretty intact. However, the bed has really filled out this year and I can’t wait to see what summer brings. Some flowers have already started to appear!
I actually don’t know the varieties any more because they’re all mixed in together but I’m keeping tabs on which ones flower and when so that I can be more selective when saving runners. I’m not sure how you keep track of your garden (or is it just me who does that?!) but I’ve started using an app called Diaro, which is essentially an electronic journal. It’s working well so far and is significantly cheaper than the previous app I used. You can get it for free but I’ve upgraded because I wanted full functionality. It’s great for keeping track of the weather, adding photos and sowing times etc. It also lets you add tags and hashtags so that you can view a particular plant’s progress over the course of the year.
I get a lot of questions about how I maintain my strawberries, but to be honest, they sort of look after themselves. I do tend to give them a liquid seaweed feed every so often and they definitely enjoy this. However, I’m mindful of not watering them too much when they’re fruiting because it makes the fruits swell but can also make them watery and tasteless.
I’d love to hear how you grow your strawberries or if this has inspired you to create your own strawberry bed.
