I wanted to give a quick update on the strawberry bed. My big beautiful bed, which was very overgrown with June-bearing strawberries underwent a huge makeover in the middle of March 2021. I ripped out all the plants, saved about 10% and either transplanted or tossed the remainder into the compost to spread them out and give them more room to grow and produce fruit. Plants older than 5 years will still live, but their fruit production drastically decreases. No freeloaders allowed here…I’ll give you a place to live, but you must pay ‘rent’ somehow. I obtained some nice garden soil from a local nursery and topped off the bed before putting some of the plants back in.
As you can see, they looked pretty ragged. REMEMBER!! Strawberry roots are very sensitive to drying out. The plants I decided to keep were dug up and quickly heeled in (roots were covered) with some of the purchased garden soil. I kept my fingers crossed and by the middle of May, they were producing yummy berries! Some of the transplants were put into barrels on the rooftop garden. Looks like they thrived there too! I can’t wait to see what 2022 brings!
Strawberries thrive in containers! Just make sure it's deep enough for their roots! You'll also have to pay closer attention to their water requirements as containers tend to dry out much faster than raised beds!
As you can see, the bed filled out nicely by harvest season!
Can't you just smell and taste these!?! YUMMY!
Freezing to preserve our bountiful harvest. This will be used to make jam in the Fall.
