Strawberries are the first of many berries we are enjoying from our garden in early Summer. In this video we’re briefly reviewing 12 different varieties and i’ll be talking about cropping, flavour and how early they’re producing runners. There is one variety we’ve had for 11 years now. We’ve been bringing it with us from one garden to the next and it’s been generous to us fruiting reliably and multiplying year after year. This year we started a strawberry experiment adding 11 more varieties and to our surprise they’re all very different. We are growing half of the new plants in crates filled with compost. These were started in the greenhouse and moved to tables made from pallet wood placed right outside our backdoor. This way we are keeping an eye on ripening strawberries when we’re walking by on a daily basis and beat the birds to it!
The other half of the new plants are growing in our woodchip mulched garden. Although these will take a little longer to start cropping they are thriving and scrumches harvests are almost guaranteed for years to come. Remember minerals is what gives flavour to food, so always a volcanic rock dust when gardening. Traditionally straw was placed under the berries to prevent them from touching off the soil and turning moldy. The original name is groundberry. Perhaps if we all start growing strawberries in woodchip mulch garden beds, we can rename them woodchipberries. 😀
