• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Home Garden Joy
  • Home
  • How to Garden
    • Seed Starting
    • Plant Profiles
    • Tools & Equipment
    • Raised Bed Gardening
  • Vegetables
  • Fruit
  • Herbs
  • Plant Based Recipes
    • Canning and Food Preservation
    • Salad Recipes
    • Soup Recipes
    • Vegetarian Meals
  • About
    • Books & Classes
      • Herbalism Classes
      • Indoor Herb Gardening
      • Books for Christian Herbalists
      • Privacy Policy

What to Do with Strawberry Plants in Winter: How to Winterize Strawberries

October 20, 2015 by Jeanne

Keep your strawberry plants alive through the cold and snow outdoors in the garden – here’s what to do with strawberry plants in winter. Please note that these instructions refer to plants grown in raised beds or in the ground.

Treat Strawberries Like Perennials with Special Winter Care

Strawberries are an easy to grow small fruit in the home garden. But they do need special care and preparation in order to survive a cold winter. Here’s how to tuck your strawberries in for their long winter nap so that when they awaken in the spring, they’re raring to grow.

Cold Air, Freezing and Thawing Can Damage Plants

Strawberries are shallow-rooted. Because their roots and crowns, the central growing portion of the plant, are so near the soil surface, cold air temperature can really damage them. The freezing and thawing action of the soil can also push plants right out of the ground. If they are dislodged during this process, they can dehydrate and die.

You need to take special steps to ensure that your strawberry plants survive the winter. Here’s what to do to help your strawberries live through the winter.

Winter Preparation for Strawberry Pots and Containers

Strawberry pots, jars or containers are special terra cotta planters with little pockets or holes around the sides. You tuck strawberry plants into each soil-filled hole and into the top. You can also plant strawberries in half whiskey barrels and other kinds of planters.

To prepare strawberries in containers for the winter months:

  • Wrap the outside of the pot with burlap fabric. DO NOT USE PLASTIC. It doesn’t insulate well.
  • Secure the burlap with cords or tape.
  • Stuff the top of the jar with burlap or straw.
  • Move the entire container or jar into an unheated garage or shed.
  • Check around your plants periodically in the spring. When you see green leaves appear again, remove the covers and place the entire container back outside in the sunshine. Water well in the spring.

Winter Preparation for Strawberry Plants Growing in the Ground

Strawberry plants growing in the soil or in raised bed gardens also need special care. You need to protect their delicate crowns from snow, ice and freezing temperatures. The best mulch is pine straw. You can see pine straw in this picture – it’s the little brown things, like toothpicks.

strawberries

Pine needles shed during the year. They turn brown, like the leaves of deciduous trees, but the entire tree does not lose its leaves. You can rake up pine straw from around your property if you have pine trees. Because I live on a pine tree farm, that’s what I do.

Rake the pine straw from the ground, then place it over the top of your garden bed, covering the strawberry plants with about one to two inches of pine straw mulch after the first hard frost of the year. Leave the plants covered with mulch until the spring. When green leaves emerge, it’s time to gently push the pine needles off of the plants with your hands. Rake it up once it is off of the plants and discard it.

You can purchase pine straw mulch in bags at garden centers. Other types of mulch or straw can work just fine, but be sure whatever you put on the strawberry bed does not contain seeds. Otherwise, you’re just seeding weeds!

Weed One Last Time

I always give my strawberry bed one last good weeding before putting the berries to bed for their long winter nap. Weeds love strawberry beds, probably because the soil is so rich and nutritious. But strawberries do not like the competition for soil nutrients.

When you weed during the fall, you’re preventing future weeds from sprouting because you are removed adult plants, potential seeds, and roots. So do give your strawberry patch a good weeding before covering the plants.

strawberry
Pin241
Share
Tweet
241 Shares

Filed Under: Growing Fruit

Previous Post: « The Beauty of an Old Apple Tree
Next Post: Enjoying Apple Season »

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Growing Strawberry Plants - Home Garden Joy says:
    June 5, 2018 at

    […] Tucking Strawberry Plants in for the Winter […]

  2. Winter Raised Bed Gardens - Home Garden Joy says:
    October 26, 2018 at

    […] There are a few chores left for me to do. I need to drain and store the hoses. The tomato cages I’ve taken apart and stacked next to the shed need to be stored upon the hooks Hubby added to the shed walls. The asparagus, looking dismal and forlorn during these cold rainy days, should be cut back, and the strawberry plants covered with pine straw. […]

Primary Sidebar

Let’s Connect!

  • Amazon
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Featured

logo of the american horticulture society

Explore All Gardening Articles

Seed Starting Basics

Easy Ways to Save Cantaloupe Seeds

plants and tools in a wheelbarrow

Starting Peppers from Seeds

tomato seedlings

Seed Starting Resources

tomatoes on the vine

When Should You Start Tomato Seeds Indoors?

Herbalism Classes & Supplies

Goods Shop by Herbal Academy – botanically inspired products

We were featured in Porch.com and answered reader's questions about indoor plants.

Disclosure

Home Garden Joyo participates in two affiliate programs: Amazon and The Herbal Academy. Home Garden Joy earns a commission from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate. As an Herbal Academy Associate, HGJ also earns a commission when you sign up for classes or purchase herbs or supplies from The Herbal Academy.

Footer

raised bed garden

How to Build a Vegetable Garden Using Raised Beds

If you’re thinking about building a vegetable garden this year, raised beds are one of the best ways I know of to start a vegetable garden. Instead of renting a rototiller or hand-digging the soil, adding amendments and turning it all under to create a good garden bed, you start with the best soil mixture…

Read More

henbit close up

Henbit: Plant Profile

I’ve put together this henbit plant profile to spotlight a lovely plant – which many gardeners consider a weed. Weed or flower? To me, it’s a matter of perspective. Every spring, at least one of my raised beds is covered in a thick mat of henbit. Henbit is both lovely and practical despite being labeled…

Read More

fresh beets from the garden on the lawn after being washed

The Ultimate Guide to Growing Organic Beets

I wrote this Ultime Guide to Growing Beets to share my techniques for growing tasty, organic beets. Beets are a powerhouse of nutrition. Both the beetroot and the leaves and stems are edible. You can also can beets and beet greens to store them for year-round use. Here, I share with you a full guide…

Read More

a blue wheelbarrow and a red wheelbarrow filled with pine branches

Winter Homesteading Projects

Even though it’s cold and snowy out, winter homesteading projects beckon. As I write this, snow is falling in sheets outside my office windows, covering the orchard trees with a blanket of white. Last week, an ice storm knocked power out for 36 hours – and knocked pines down every which way. We had poles…

Read More

  • Privacy Policy
  • About
  • Awards

Copyright © 2025 Home Garden Joy on the Foodie Pro Theme