Growing strawberries using organic gardening techniques isn’t difficult. It’s a matter of balance in the garden.
Growing Strawberries Using Organic Gardening Techniques
I’ve been picking a pint or more a day of wonderful strawberries from the garden. I grow our strawberries using only organic gardening methods. The secret is really in the soil. I use almost 100% compost in the raised bed; strawberries are heavy feeders, and by the fall, the soil level is down an inch or more as they transform it through their roots into nutrients. It’s pretty amazing stuff.
This year the weather has been absolutely perfect for growing fruits, vegetables, and herbs. The strawberries thrived with an inch or more of rain per week and the gentle spring weather. Honestly, if I could have dialed up the perfect weather for growing food, it would be this season.
Another thing really helped my strawberry crop this year and that was digging up many of the smaller plants that had grown as the second or third generation plants from the ever-bearing strawberry plants that were the parents. I bought plain old every bearing strawberry plants from Lowe’s to start the garden, but I planted them too close together. This winter on a mild day, we dug up the baby plants and moved them, giving the plants plenty of space. We also added even more compost to the bed. I think the combination of giving the strawberries more space, the abundant rain, gentle temperatures and rich compost gave us the bountiful harvest this year.
Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.
We’ve started picking strawberries too. And, the taste is amazing! I lost some plants though because the winter was so dry. I need to be better about watering them on warmer winter days.
One thing I hope to do is grow organic strawberries in our gorgeous walled garden. But I’ve learned to be patient and put these kinds of projects on temporary hold while the kids are so small. It’s much easier to paint dairy studio shelves at 11pm after the kids are in bed then it is to try and garden at the height of the day with three wee kids begging for help and attention lol
But I have lots of fun plans for the walled garden in a few years time ~ paths, raised beds, strawberries!! It isn’t a huge garden but it will still be lovely! Cozy 🙂
I have a pot of strawberries but I never get to see the fruit, as it’s always picked off by the birds and squirrels. I think I’m going to cover it w/some netting. Thanks for the compost reminder. I have some pretty good-looking compost developing and I haven’t yet added any to the soil around the strawberries. Hopefully that, and the netting, will give me at least one, yummy strawberry to enjoy?! Fresh strawberries are the best;-)