Strawberry-lious
As the full effect of summer begins, there is nothing more exciting for us experienced and want-to-be gardeners than to plant a few strawberries and watch them grow. Interestingly, the strawberry has over 600 varieties and stem from 5 or 6 original wild species that are a member of the rose family and originated in Europe in the 18th Century.
They can also range extensively in taste and sweetness. Growing strawberries from seed is best done in Spring and Autumn by removing the seeds from the strawberry with a toothpick, rinse the seeds off so that no fruit is left on them and then let them dry off completely. Fill a container with all-purpose or seed-starting soil and flick the seeds in and watch them sprout.
For those of us with less time and space to start from scratch, our local garden centres carry a range of strawberries to get you started. If you have the garden space, strawberries do well when planted around vegetables including asparagus, spinach, lettuce, garlic, onion, and rhubarb. As the strawberry plants grows, it also grows stems to be able to replant itself in larger gardens.
If you live in an apartment or have a small garden area, strawberries do well in hanging baskets allowing the flower to hang over the side of the basket to continue the growing process in a spacious environment. When the stems begin in a hanging basket, make sure to cut them so that the energy will go back into producing the fruit rather than trying to expand over an area.
Strawberries love the sun so planting them or hanging them in areas that get good quality sunshine in the best way to get a high yield. In the high heat part of the season, be sure to water regularly as too much sun can damage leaves and dry the plant out quickly. Once the plant begins to flower, to get the best yield of your strawberries and other fruiting crops, you need to regularly add additional potassium (K). The easiest way to do this is to buy a bottle of tomato feed. Although called tomato feed, this will do the job for all fruiting crops.
If you started early, strawberries come into season in the UK between May and September with the best yields during the height of the summer season. I, myself have certainly had good and bad years in growing strawberries and so far in 2021, I’m off to a good start for a strong yield from my plants started in April and looking forward to their variety of meals and summer drinks to make good use of our stock.