Strawberry fields forever......nearly! (Strawberries)

Member Name: emmachilcott

Product:	Strawberries
Date:	02/08/09 (117 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Complete satisfaction and fresh fruit at your fngertips

Disadvantages: Possibly uneconomical to begin with

Gardening never used to interest me at all, but as I am getting older, I find myself with an uncontrollable urge to grow things. Few things match the pleasure of walking out into the garden and picking your own produce that you have created, and when you match this with one of the tastiest fruits around, the pleasure is immeasurable! The tale of my plants started three years ago.


We have a south facing long, narrow garden, and up until a few years ago it was mainly lawn for the sake of the children. My initial intention was to grow strawberries in hanging baskets; firstly so that we could keep as much grass as possible free for football, paddling pools etc...And secondly because we have our very own garden pest. Our pet rabbit runs freely around the whole garden as it is completely enclosed with no chance of escape, and he obviously likes to munch on anything that I attempt to grow.


I went to my local garden centre at the beginning of summer and purchased four strawberry plants, four hanging baskets, four brackets and a bag of compost- the whole lot coming to around £30. At this point I realised that these four plants were going to have to produce a lot of strawberries to make my new project economical!


I planted up my baskets and waited for the fruit to grow. A month later, there was no sign of fruit, but all of the plants had bushed out completely filling the baskets. They also all had a lot of shoots coming off them which were about to grow into new baby plants, so I decided that the time had come for me to dig a bed so that these plants could flourish. I dug out a bed along the fence, about eighteen inches wide, and around four foot long and carefully transplanted the plants into the soil. I also had to purchase some netting to protect them from the rabbit - this set me back another fiver! Luckily we had some wire hanging about so I made my own tunnel and once again waited for some fruit. Still nothing and summer was practically over, but I did have a lot of baby plants that were well established so I made the bed a bit longer and planted them out.


Over winter I replaced the netting with wadding to protect the plants from the frost, and come spring I was delighted to see that they were still thriving. The babies were having babies so I planted them out, and I had so many that I put some into pots and sold them at a boot sale recouping £15. Flowers developed and finally fruit started to grow. That second summer I had about twenty strawberries- hardly a bumper crop, but I was pleased. More babies were developing nicely, and by the end of that summer my bed along the fence was thirty foot long!


This summer we have had masses of strawberries and all of my hard work and nurturing has finally paid off! I have not had to buy fruit for lunchboxes all summer, and the feeling of satisfaction sending my sons off to school with my strawberries has been immense! I have had about fifty new babies that I planted into pots, and again I have sold them at a boot sale so I've got my initial investment back several times over. The fruit has all gone now, but babies are still growing and I'm still potting them up.


This whole process has been time consuming, but the effort has definitely been worth it, and I can't wait until next spring when it starts all over again and all the better if I can make some more money out of it. I am a complete novice gardener and I didn't have a clue what I was doing, so if I can do this, anyone can, even if you only have a small window box. Strawberry plants really are the plants that keep on giving, so I would recommend them as a starting point to any new gardener.

Summary: Patience is a virtue, but satisfaction is guaranteed eventually!