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Step 1
Strawberries can be started from seed if you are very patient. Sprinkle the fine seed over sterile seedling soil, water gently, put them in a well lit area and place glass over the top until the tiny green sprouts show. You can grow them on until they are about an inch big and then pot them up separately. Don't let them dry out at this stage.
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Step 2
You can also cut the long runners off of adult plants once the small strawberry plant has started to root. Just place it in rich soil and the roots and plant will continue to grow.
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Step 3
Easiest of all is to pick up strawberry plants at your local garden center.
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Step 4
Plant your strawberries in full sun and rich soil. Make sure they don't dry out. I keep mine permanently mulched. That way the soil stays moist and surface temperatures are mediated at the soil level. Curiously enough, strawberries do best with a mulch of -- yup, you guessed it! -- straw! If you cover the soil with straw it will also keep your berries nice and neat and clean!
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Step 5
Strawberries are easy to grow. There are a number of different varieties so check with your local experts to learn which is best in your area. You can feed them lightly with a fertilizer for berries and fruits.
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Step 6
Use strawberries as a ground cover in the vegetable patch or garden. They look great spilling over retaining walls. And pots, too. You can even buy a 'strawberry pot' with pockets to plant the strawberries so they cascade down the sides. Adding a watering tube down the middle of the pot makes water penetrate better. (If you live in a hot dry climate, don't let this pot dry out because it is hard to get the interior moist again once dry.) Design your own strawberry pot. Build a tower of pots, one atop the next and plant the top one and the edges of the rest. Or build a column of chicken wire covered with moss and filled with soil, slotting in your plants on the sides and top. Use your imagination.
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Step 7
When those strawberries turn red in the spring and summer, they will have a flavor far better than the ones in the stores. And the plants themselves are very decorative.
Comments
Butterfli said
on 9/28/2008 This is an excellent idea ... to grow your own strawberries! Thank you! 5*