There are few things more enjoyable than picking a ripe juicy strawberry from your little patch and eating it on the spot. Our strawberry beds here at Tullamore Farm move into overdrive in Spring.
Strawberry plants start to reduce fruit yield when they are about 3 years old. We plant a new crop every year from our runners and remove the oldest patch. We always have 3 beds of strawberries. This system works so well and the Strawberry production line keeps on keeping on. Once planted they can fruit quite quickly with good conditions.
They like an Acidic soil so when planting out we always add some Organic Azealia Potting mix to the bed. We give our strawberries a big prune every Autumn and then fertilize with our compost or a little organic blood and bone or chicken manure pellets.
Short of space? We grow some Strawberries in hanging baskets above our raised bed gardens. Very important to keep them well mulched because they dry out quicker this way. Really handy way to get some extra produce if you live on a small suburban block.
Strawberries prefer to have minimal water on their leaves and we have the hose on mist when watering.Strawberries throw out runners in late spring or Summer. Don’t let the runners take over the bed because if you have too many planted in a small area you won’t get the taste or size. We mulch all our beds with Bana grass or Sugar-cane mulch. This helps suppress the weeds and retain moisture. It also makes it a little easier to spot the runners.
