A New Strawberry Bed

We are currently growing two kinds of strawberries, everbearing and June-bearing.

Everbearing strawberry planted in a tire

We bought 4 everbearing plants this spring and will start a proper bed with them soon.  Currently they are housed in a temporary bed and are doing very well.  Everbearing strawberries don't have the deep delicious taste that the June-bearing ones do, but they produce right into the fall and they certainly taste delicious when all you can see in the stores are the hard tasteless ones that are imported!

Totem plants growing in a 4x4 concrete raised bed

The June-bearing strawberries we grow are Totems.  I got them from a friend who got them from me!  We stopped growing strawberries as we were tight for room.  Thank goodness he is still growing them!  We planted these ones in a 4x4 raised bed and they did well for a couple of years.  Since this was a new bed, the nutrition wasn't as good as beds we've been tending for years.  The time had come to de-commission this bed and rebuild the soil.  Strawberries are extremely efficient reproducers and are constantly sending out runners.

9 rooted plants waiting to be settled in their new home

I filled 9 pots with soil and anchored a runner in each.  When they had firmly established themselves -it only took a couple of weeks - they were ready to go.  I snipped each runner from its parent and then moved the plants to their new bed.  And as it happened, each little plant was already making its own little runner.

Soil prepared for the new plants

The bed they were destined for had recently housed my poor rust-infected garlic.  Since no alliums should be planted here for at least 3 years, making it into a strawberry bed is a perfect solution.  For now they will share the bed with carrots, but it won't take long for us to eat them up and free the bed for strawberries.  This bed was well prepared for the garlic and had been mulched with SeaSoil.  All it needed was turning over.

Pots set out to get proper spacing

I placed the new plants approximately where I wanted them, leaving plenty of room so that their runners would have room to root as well.

All done!  They just need a good watering

Then the plants were firmed into the soil.  I was careful not to plant them any deeper - strawberries hate that!  If planted too deeply, the crowns will rot.  Then the runners were placed approximately where I wanted them.  Finally the whole bed got a good watering.