Fragaria x ananassa
You know what a strawberry is, so all we’ll say here is that we’d recommend you stick to what are known as perpetual, or everbearing, varieties. These have a first heavy crop in June, then take a little rest before starting up a drip feed of fruit that carries on until early autumn.
Strawberries are undemanding plants and don’t need half the fretting over that many garden books suggest. Viz:
■ Don’t bother planting through a plastic sheet mulch. This makes it very tricky to get the watering right, and weeds will still grow up through the planting holes.
■ Don’t bother laying straw underneath fruit to keep it clean – because you’ll wipe or wash off any splodges of earth before eating, right? And the straw will be a lovely home for slugs and fungal spores.
■ Don’t bother mucking about with covering plants using cloches or fleece in an effort to get more or earlier fruit. This only encourages mites, mildew and weevils.
In fact we’d say there are just two ‘dos’: do leave tatty leaves on in winter to protect the crown, or growing point, from frost. And to maximize yields, do cut off runners – baby plants that creep away from their parent plant on long strand-like stems with a knot of small white rootlets at the end. Whenever you see a runner, pinch the long stem off close to the mummy plant and either throw it away or pot it up to stock a new strawberry bed.
Actually, that’s a third ‘do’: plant a new strawberry bed every other year. Because although these are perennial plants that should in theory last for ages, sooner or later most cultivated varieties will succumb to various viruses and their crop production-rate reduces. After plants have cropped for three to four years, dig them out and burn them; the ash can go onto the new bed for a potassium kick. And as long as you remembered to start a new bed, you’ll still have plenty of fruit.