My Tips For Growing Your Own Strawberries

People that have followed my blog for a number of years will know that around this time I will start harping on about strawberries. We have been growing them for quite a while in our garden and we just get more and more each year. But I’m quite proud of them as they are just about the only things that have grown successfully in my garden. So you’ve got another few weeks of strawberry talk to endure. Sorry about that!

But if you are thinking of planting a strawberry plant, then there are a few things that you should and shouldn’t do, in order to for them to grow the best. The great thing about them is that they taste good, they don’t need much space to grow and the kids enjoy helping with them too. So I’m just going to share a few of the things that I have done. We started out with one tiny plant a number of years ago, and now I can collect a large bowl a day of strawberries around this time of year, so they must be some tips that work.

• Plant in a sunny area. If you have areas of the garden that get more sun than others, then it is a good idea to plant your strawbs there, or move the posts there if you’ll be planting in pots. They love the sunshine!
• Plant your strawberries early. May and June is the perfect time to get planting. The earlier that you get the plants in, the more strawberries that you’re likely to get growing.
• Spread them out. They like to have some room to grow and so they don’t have to compete for light or water. So spread them out if you can. It helps when they start to do off shoots for next season too.
• Don’t water them too much. Last year we had a pretty wet summer, and strawberries do not like it! They can get rotten and slugs get everywhere if the soil is too damp. So think about drainage if it looks like there will be lots of rain where you are.
• The runners (or off-shoots) are how we have managed to get thousands of strawberries each summer. However, the runners from a young strawberry plant aren’t going to be as viable as they will take the plant a lot of energy to grow. Runners from larger, older, and more established plants will be fine to leave, and they will root themselves to the soil.

One of the other things that I have discovered is that you need to pick them just as they turn ripe, so yes, that does leave m out picking strawberries on a pretty much daily basis)! However, if they are left too long, they will get a dark red and get much softer. They will also be more attractive to pests in this case too. If you’re picking and find a rotten one, make sure you throw it away so bugs aren’t drawn to it.

On a side note, I do find that my hands get really dry and coarse after I have been working out in the garden. Home of Juniper sent me some really lovely things that are perfect for using after being out in the garden. The Gardener’s Hand Scrub smells amazing and helps to smooth down any rough patches on my skin. It is a bit of a funny colour (but it does contain crushed olive stones which will lend themselves to the colours), but it is really lovely to use. How did I manage looking after my garden all the years with out it?!

If you’d like to try some for yourself, or any other of the Juniper products for that matter, then use the code aaublog10 for free shipping and 10% off your order (expires at the end of the month).

Have you ever grown strawberries or other fruit and veg in your garden?

*all opinions are my own.