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Awesome Perennial Plants: How To Grow Strawberries

strawberryAre you hoping to expand your garden or get one started? Perennial vegetables are species of plants that can save you lots of labor in the garden, since they come back year after year, and require much less work than the more common annuals.

Most of the vegetables we eat are annuals, including tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and potatoes. However, there are a number of awesome perennial vegetables that would be a great addition to your garden, including strawberries.

How to grow strawberries

Strawberries are one of the easiest plants to grow in your garden, since they can grow just about anywhere. Find a spot that gets full sun, with rich topsoil, and is well-drained. Strawberries should be planted in early spring. The best way to start your own patch is to get some “runners” from a nursery or a gardener friend. Plug the runners into your soil and water them well to get them established. The plants should receive regular watering throughout the spring.

strawberry potIf you have limited space for growing vegetables (or none at all), you can even start strawberry plants in a large, wide pot. You may not get as much fruit this way, but you can still get your strawberry fix without the need of a large plot of land.

Mulch between your strawberry plants with straw or leaves or dead grass, which will help to keep the soil moist and detract weeds from competing with your fruit.

Most varieties of strawberries bear for two to three weeks in June, but other ever-bearing varieties produce throughout the season.

strawberry patch

And the best thing about strawberries? They are a perennial, so they will come back year after year, withoutΒ  the need of replanting, and continue to produce beautiful and delicious fruit. Strawberries send out runners and spread, so your patch will naturally expand over time unless you pluck out the extra plants. (Give the extra runners to your friends!)

Strawberries are a easy and rewarding addition to your home’s eco garden*.

Interested in growing other food plants? Check out MNN’s tips onΒ how to grow onions.

Looking for other fruits and vegetables to grow? Browse through our selection of organic seeds.

*Link to the sustainablog Green Choices store

Image credit: Christi Nielsen, daedrius from Flickr

6 comments
  1. Richard @ Eco Living Advice

    Depending on the variety you choose, you can even grow strawberries from seed and get fruit on the very first year. Most people assume that you will have to wait for fruit until the second year but giving seed-grown plants a good start under glass may well yield fruit in their first season. Another reason to grow strawberries!

  2. Karen

    Strawberries are wonderful to grow. They require little attention and yield such juicy treats. Ours weren’t eaten by the groundhogs, for some reason, so are at the top of my list of plants. I can put these anywhere and not have to fence around them!

  3. Carpet Cleaning Winter Haven

    Hey, I didn’t even think about using grass clippings in between the strawberries. I have a whole pile of grass clippings in the backyard.

    I read at another website that if you want larger strawberries to pinch off the runners while the strawberries are growing and once they are done, you can let them grow out.

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