Strawberries

Picking up on my garden musings, here's my experience with strawberries.

I have Jewel June-bearing. Every fall cover them with wheat straw to protect from severe cold (oat straw causes nematodes). In the spring, remove most of it. If you keep the beds weeded, they will produce for a long time. Take the runners and transplant them to a new bed. The first spring, don't let them flower; they need to put all their energy into producing more runners. I started with 25 plants; by the second year, they had filled the bed. Last year, I got about 50 pounds of strawberries from a 16' bed. The hardest thing is that the runners want to take over. You have to stay on top of them and redirect them back into the bed.

I made 50 pints of freezer jam last year&mash;which lasted us until this last Saturday. I don't know what we are going to do for the next 1.5-2 months! I guess I'll have to survive on rhubarb sauce instead of strawberry jam :)