Sweet, Sweet Strawberries

This afternoon I checked on my Autumn-potted strawberry runners, and found myself much pleased both with the numbers gained from my original 13 plants - 36 - and with their quality. It set my mind to casting back to the height of summer, not the heavy heat of August, but the lighter, brighter times of June and July. Anticipation and reward are the words that come first to hand; the strawberry crop is in full flood, with bowls for the neighbours and fist-fulls for the family.

Once the very last, succulent fruit has been regretfully removed thoughts turn once more to propagation, and even more of the wonderful plants for next year. This delicious fruit occupies a fairly unusual, and possibly unique, position, in that it can be fruited within a year of the formation of the plant. Almost instant gratification, at least in gardening terms.

This last season's plants were grown exclusively in a cylindrical jute planter - compact and neat, and with the added advantage of keeping the fruits off the ground. Usually, straw would be spread around the base of each plant and between rows to protect the flowers from late frosts and, later, to prevent the fruit from being soiled in wet weather. Use of the planter made everything rather easier, and required perhaps only a little more water than conventionally sited plants. Only when I came along in late summer with my little pots and pegs, to set the runners, did I realise that vertically sited plants may cause me some small trouble - how to 'float' the runner pots. This was eventually overcome using slightly more resilient and firm pegging, and I simply allowed the new miniature plants to be suspended from their parents. Thirty six successes from thirty six attempts proved the method, I believe.

The next job, over winter, will be the (fairly) careful preparation of new ground , and associated manuring. I am fortunate enough to have access to an almost limitless supply of entirely free stable manure, well rotted and easily retrieved. This subject is something I have been looking into, and I intend to cover it in more depth in a future post. Suffice it to say, the horse holds more attraction for the gardener and allotment holder than any other farm animal.

Next year will, of course, require me to return to ground based planting and standard methods to enable me to accommodate my expanded stock. The main advantage of this, apart from the rather pleasing ground cover (not to everyone's taste, but to me rustic and lovely), is the potential for an even larger crop of sweet and juicy fruits, to be freely given to all who visit.

Please bring your own cream.

There is something infinitely healing in the

repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night,

and spring after the winter.

- Rachel Carson
The Sense of Wonder

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