The Ezine For Every Strawberry Lover!

Issue #75

It's still snowing over here. It seems like it will never stop, and we just don't have enough space to put all the snow that has to be shoveled away :-(

Anyhow, I'm optimistic, that spring will come sooner or later (it always does, right?) :-)

Plan Your Strawberry Batch

Get ready looking through your garden or balcony and take notes.

- How much space do you have? - How many plants can you grow there? - Do you want to use a planter? - What about hanging strawberry plants? - What are the sun, soil and rain conditions?

Strawberry plants are perennial, which means, they can produce fruit for several years and they survive winters (not always, though).

Still, a strawberry plant starts producing less after 3-4 years. Therefore you should weed out all the old plants. This is preferably done in autumn, but you can still do it in spring, as soon as the snow has melted away.

If you live in the tropics you can plant year-around, but strawberries are native to the moderate/continental climate and tend to give better flavor in these regions.

Replace all the old plants with young ones from the nursery. Every year the market sells new varieties, just try one or two new ones if you feel adventurous.

I used to recommend Gurneys, to buy your plants from, but recently their service has deteriorated a lot and they haven't answered several of my emails to their customer service. Therefore I'm not recommending them anymore.

If you know of any online garden shop or nursery that has certified organic plants and outstanding customer service, please let me know. Meanwhile, you can buy your plants either at your local nursery or online at Amazon.com.

Gardening Books

If you're interested in growing your own strawberry plants you can off course read all the info on my website at http://www.strawberry-recipes.com/growing-strawberries.html .

But for those of you interested to get a deeper understanding and even better results, I recommend the following books.

Successful Home Gardening

This is not specifically about strawberries, but about fruit and vegetable gardening. I found it very useful and learnt many new things such as the best location according to sunshine hours and intensity or the best soil for different plants.

Successful Home Gardening by E. Gordon Wells Jr

Gardening Books by Doug Green

I have followed the gardening websites of retired nurseryman Doug Green for a few years now and found his advice always helpful. He has written dozens of gardening books and the ones I've read have been spectacular. Unfortunately he doesn't have a book dedicated to growing strawberries, but I'm sure any interested gardener can find something in his growing collection of books:

Douglas Green's Books

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