Homegrown heaven
STRAWBERRIES: It may be the depths of winter, but you can make an early start now on these summer favourites, says David Overend.
OU can eat strawberries every day of the year. You may turn a bit red in the face; you may eventually get sick of the sight of them; but the fact is that strawberries are always available – at a price.
Which is why so few people seem to grow them in their gardens. The supermarkets can deliver when the British climate can’t, so why bother trying to raise your own crop when you could end up disappointed?
The answer is simple – because homegrown strawberries taste better, and there’s a certain satisfaction from eating produce you’ve grown in your own garden. If you’re sensible enough to have a few rows of strawberries growing in the garden, it’s possible to give them a bit of help right now and earn yourself an early crop.
First give them a once-over, removing dead or damaged foliage and digging up any weeds which have taken up residence, then add a general-purpose fertiliser to the soil.
Happy? Now just pop a cloche (it could be home-made or a more expensive product; it doesn’t matter) over the top of the strawberry plants and block off the ends to keep the heat in. If there is such a thing as a warm, sunny day, just unblock the ends to allow a bit of air to circulate.
This method should, with luck, encourage the plants to produce early flowers – and early fruit.
By growing them off the ground they can escape the advances
of the slugs.
Alternatively, if you can get your hands on a few potted strawberry plants, stick them in the greenhouse or a coldframe. Even a slight rise in temperature – and the added protection of glass – will encourage them to start to flower a couple of weeks before they would normally.
Some people just haven’t got the room for strawberries, but that doesn’t mean to say they can’t cultivate some and enjoy all the benefits of home-grown. Plant five to six plants in a hanging-basket in spring, and water every day during the growing season.
From flowering until harvest, feed the plants every 10 days with a tomato feed. Then enjoy the harvest. Varieties such as ‘Sweet Success’ are ideal for hangingbaskets – and by growing them off the ground they can escape the advances of slugs, which have a passion for the fruits.
At the end of the season, pot up runners from your plants and grow them on for next year.