First Strawberries

[Printemps]

This year having decided to turn my little 'potager' into raised beds, it meant lifting the strawberries and putting them into 6" pots whilst the garden was overhauled. By the time I came to re-plant them, they had begun to flower so I thought it best to leave them undisturbed. I picked my first one yesterday! Because they aren't on the ground they are clean and as they are just outside the door along a wall, the birds haven't found them either! Maybe I should stick to growing them in pots next year!

[Crundy]

A few flowers. ours come into fruit for Wimbledon - and then the mice come...

Anyone got a cure for field mice? Anything that is not involving a minefield :-)

Get a cat.

Edit: Make sure it's a cat who can eat a whole mouse. Mine tends to leave bits behind on the patio which the chickens rush over to scoff before I notice and get a chance to clean it up.

[janeyo]

I've had 5 straws so far. Cut the first one into quarters - a bit for each of us lol.
I was a bit sneaky though and ate the others in the greenhouse...

[ckfe]

why do you need to pick the flowers off?

[HotStuff]

I noticed a fair number of flowers on my strawberry tower earlier in the week and now have about a dozen green strawberries. As we have a gang of pigeons that hang around nearby I thought it would be sensible to put up some netting and this is what I came up with.

[coreopsis]

This week I noticed first flowers...I'm afraid I'll be a few weeks behind you(as usual)

[Madasafish]

Get a cat?

Our last one died 15 years ago.
We had no garden birds so did not replace it..

I think we'll live with mice AND birds :-)

[Spiderling]

Hi ckfe. It used to be the done thing to remove the flowers off strawberry plants in the first year, so they use their energy to build up good strong plants for the next year. Seems like a terrible waste to me!!! I've never done it and my plants have performed well. I feed them with tomato food as soon as they start to flower, until I've picked the last berry. Cheers

[sewer rat]

Hve had quite a few punnets from the strawbs in the hanging baskets in the tunnel - today the first two outdoor strawberries were picked and swiftly dispatched !!

[TonyF]

Being a bit further south and a lot warmer most of the time, we're much further on than you guys in the UK. Our alpine strawberry patch is rather large to be honest and they grow like weeds in various parts of the garden but J spends about half an hour each evening (usually with my help) picking the alpines, we really have so many we have to give them away