Strawberry Picking at Home
While there is something very nice about going to pick strawberries at a pristine farm and bring home a pint or more of freshly picked warm and perfectly plump berries, it can be even more satisfying to have your own homegrown berries for the picking. For one, you’re picking these berries for free and you can continue to go and get ripe berries daily for days on end. Even more, there is an element of pride when you’ve grown your own food.
Spring time flowers on the strawberry plants. When you see lots of these little flowers, it means you will be finding lots of berries in just a few weeks. We planted our berry plants in raised beds, but they spread so well that we have them peppered between the boxes, sneaking into the asparagus patch and vegetable garden, and sometimes even creeping up between the cobblestones on the path. They’re easy to transplant, so the more, the better.
The first red strawberry of the season.
It starts with that first red berry, and then a handful. All of a sudden, there are so many red berries, we have to plan a breakfast with strawberries and cream, so crepes is now on the menu.
We had heard it’s better not to mulch strawberry beds, but after a few years struggling to have a successful little crop, we decided to put mulch around our berries to help keep down the weeds. It has also helped the plants grow bigger and produce larger berries. This photo of the strawberry patch has a neighboring Cedar Waxwing stopping in for a snack.
Dangers to the strawberry patch includes insects, birds, and chipmunks. This one has been caught red pawed! Some people put netting over their strawberry patch boxes. We’re hoping our chipmunk moves away after we get a cat.
As the summer progresses, the berries stop growing and the plants turn their energy on sprouting new shoots. This is a good sign of healthy berry plants. I will arrange those shoots and help plant them into good soil spaced out from the others.
