Strawberry

also come from a centuries-old favorite mulch for strawberries: straw. No matter how the strawberry got its name, the plants love to be mulched. Mulch keeps the soil moist, suppresses

weeds and keeps the fruit cleaner. Give strawberries a year-round, organic mulch.

ADOPT A PLANTING SYSTEM

Spacing for strawberry plants depends on your method of growing them.

With the “hill system,” you plant them close together

— 9 inches apart in a double row, with 9 inches between rows — and avoid future crowding by pinching off all runners. More plants are needed to get started, but initial yields are highest. This system is especially suited to those junebearing varieties that naturally develop fewer runners, and to everbearers. With the “matted row system,” you set plants at wide spacing — 24 inches apart in single rows, with 4 feet between rows — and allow plants to make runners like crazy. Fewer plants are needed to get started, but the first crop is smaller than with the hill system.

Never allow the mat of mother and daughter plants to spread wider than 18 inches, and periodically thin out crowded plants.

No matter which system you adopt, pinch off all flowers that appear during the month after planting in order to coax plants to put their energy into growing strong roots. One advantage of everbearers is that they continue to flower after that month of pinching, which means you get to pick fruits later this season from this spring’s planting!

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