Whether you already have strawberries in the garden or you want to pick some next summer, now is a busy time and a great time to start.
Strawberries are an ideal crop to grow at home. They do to take up much space and plants can crop in just a few months after planting in spring. But planted now, the plants will be well established by next summer and will give a good crop. You can grow them in beds or borders, in pots or even hanging baskets and growing bags.
Strawberry plants crop quickly but they only live and crop well for up to three years. After that they should be replaced. When strawberries are grown commercially it is often in growing bags, on structures more than 1m above the ground. This makes picking easier and keeps the fruit away from soil and slugs. The plants crop within a few months and are discarded after cropping. This gives a few hints that we can follow – they grow well in pots, growing bags and baskets.
You can plant your own strawberries now. If you already have a bed of strawberries you need to do a few jobs now to keep the plants healthy and tidy.
Once fruiting is over, plants produce ‘runners’. These are stems that creep over the soil and root, at intervals, where new plants are produced. If these are not needed to propagate more plants they should be cut off. If left, they will form a mat of plants that become crowded and will not crop well. But if you want to make more plants, either to make another strawberry bed or to replace an old one, you can peg the plant into the soil or into pots. If you keep the compost moist they will root in two months and you can cut them from the mother plant and use them to plant a new bed or plant in pots or hanging baskets.
When growing in pots and strawberry pots, make sure you keep the plants moist.
You can plant six to eight young plants in a growing bag or bag of compost. Make a hole in the top of the bag and push an empty pot into it to help make watering easier. You can leave the bags outside all winter but you can also bring them into a greenhouse or polytunnel in February to encourage early growth and flowers and a crop at least a month before plants left outside.
Strawberries can be grown in a good quality multipurpose compost but you may want to add some controlled release fertiliser at planting time to boost growth and keep plants healthy through winter and into spring.
Make a note of what other fruits you may want to add to the garden. The best time to plant apples, plums and other soft fruit is in autumn. You can start to prepare the soil now, clearing it of weeds and digging it over and incorporating plenty of organic matter.
Weekly Reminders
Scarify lawns and apply an autumn lawn fertiliser now the soil is moist
Take cuttings of tender plants such as fuchsias and pelargoniums
Remove dead and yellowing foliage on tomato plants
Collect seeds from annuals in dry weather
Keep on top of weeds – recent rain will have led to a mass of weed seddlings
Plant autumn-flowering bulbs and corms such as nerines, cyclamen and autumn crocus