The Zimbabwean Gardener Issue 16 Autumn 2016 Low res | Page 24

Strawberries

Simply strawberry
by Gill Olivey

Strawberries are very easy to grow and do not require too much attention.

I have a husband who loves his
puddings, so strawberries are a
much-loved weekly dessert in our
family! With constant feeding,
watering and mulching, we are able
to produce the weekly dessert almost
throughout the year. Besides the
birds, another frequent visitor to
our veggie garden is Lexi, our little
granddaughter, who, more often than
not, will be found in the strawberry
patch eating strawberries to her
heart’s and tummy’s content. Growing
strawberries is also a good way to
introduce children to gardening,
as the berries are easy to grow and
delicious to eat.
We have two strawberry beds that
we keep going for about two to three
years before we replant new ones
from runners. We never redo both
24

beds the same year, as our weekly
strawberry puddings would be
jeopardised! We can still pick from the
one bed, whilst the new bed is getting
established.

Planting strawberries

March, April and May are the best months
to establish your strawberry beds.
Strawberries grow well in full sun.
Make your bed about a metre wide,
dig it a spade’s depth, and then add
compost and well-rotted manure. Add
several handfuls of bone meal per
square metre, as well as a sprinkling
of lime. Prepare your bed a week
or two before planting to allow it to
settle. Buy healthy strawberry plants,
or use your own strawberry runners,
and plant 40cm apart, firming down
the plant so that the crown is not

buried. Mulch closely around the
crown of each plant and ensure that
all the leaves are above the mulch.

Watering and feeding

Strawberries require a lot of water;
otherwise, the berries will be small and
dry. Drip irrigation is the best method of
watering as it waters the roots, not the
leaves; this stops any fungal problems
from developing on the leaves. Feed
your strawberries monthly with a liquid
fertiliser and you will be rewarded with
juicy sweet strawberries.

Propagation

The plants put out runners; stolon
is the correct name, but to keep it
simple, we’ll continue to call them
runners. Runners are long stems that
run off the mother plant and create
baby strawberry plants, and they are