Pictures from the Strawberry Patch
Home-grown strawberries . . .Yumm!
Strawberry shortcake – the dessert I dream about nine months of the year, and consume as often as possible the other three! This is a photo of the shortcake I enjoyed last night, using berries from our new strawberry patch.
We started the rather large strawberry garden last summer. It is an oval shape, about eight feet wide by 25 feet long. We were looking forward to lots of strawberries this spring, and weren’t disappointed. But we could have had even more, if rabbits hadn’t ravaged the plants earlier this year!
Repellant sprays weren’t working, so we resorted to covering the whole bed with bird netting. We draped the lightweight, black plastic net loosely over the plants and weighed down the edges with boards and rocks.
I covered the entire patch with bird netting.
The good news is that the netting is virtually invisible from a distance, so the bed is still attractive as “edible landscaping”. We can easily lift the net up, one section at a time, to pick the berries.
Our strawberry plants (Fragaria x Ananassa) are a combination of ‘Earliglow’, a June bearing cultivar, and ‘Seascape’, which is everbearing. June bearing cultivars produce a large crop in May and June, and are then finished for the season. Everbearing types produce smaller quantities of berries, but over the whole growing season.
'Earliglow', a June-bearing strawberry
The entire bed is – or was, before the rabbit damage – edged by alpine strawberry plants, Fragaria vesca. Also called fraises des bois, the little fruits aren’t much larger than your smallest fingernail, but the intensity of their flavor puts a normal strawberry to shame. When harvested completely ripe, both the flavor and aroma are exquisite.
Alpine strawberry plants form a dense clump rather than sending out runners. I’ve grown them for years as edging plants in my flower borders since the plants are so beautiful – tidy clumps perpetually covered with both white flowers and tiny fruits.
Alpine strawberries make a decorative border!
A favorite of the neighborhood children, the little berries are best consumed on the spot. I’ve never collected enough at one time to make strawberry shortcake, even though I have many plants. Luckily, it only takes a handful to sprinkle over vanilla ice cream!
If you are interested in growing alpine strawberries, seeds sown now will produce full-size plants by the end of summer. Next year, if well watered, they’ll bear from late spring until hard frost. They’ll tolerate more shade than standard strawberries. You do need to water in dry weather to keep berry production going. Mulching helps keep the soil moist and the berries clean.
Alpine strawberry seedlings, started eight weeks ago, are ready to plant out.
You can learn more about the best cultivars for our area, and how to grow them, from this Ohio State Extension publication, Strawberries for the Home Garden. And did you know that it’s national strawberry month? Here’s a fun site showing different ways to prepare and use strawberries.
Happy Gardening!
Sue
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