On a casual stroll to the garden one evening, I noticed that my strawberry plants had a sweet surprise for me! So many berries! Each plant was loaded with berries and thus far, untouched by birds, slugs, or other interested parties.
The next morning, I harvested my first crop. Two days later I harvested again. Three days later, my son helped me make our first batch of strawberry preserves.
Strawberry preserves are easy to process and are a wonderful gift to yourself or someone else that can be enjoyed any time of year. I just follow the recipe inside a package of pectin (three ingredients: sugar, strawberries, and pectin), hot bath, and cool. There are some easy jelly and freezer jam recipes in the pectin box you can also try.
Though our strawberry plants seemed to have become prolific overnight, there was some work and patience involved. Strawberries are fairly easy to grow. However, they will need well-drained soil and plenty of sun.
The first year after you plant, you’ll get very little or no harvest. Last year we transplanted some runners off our original everbearing variety to our new garden area, so we had very little yield. This year, as you can see, the plants are well established and producing. Everbearing varieties will give you an abundant crop in the spring, a smaller summer crop, and then a final fall crop before they go dormant for the winter.
I had planned to get pine straw from my neighbor to put around my plants this spring. I have not done this yet, but still have plans to do that soon. Pine straw or other mulches can be used to keep weeds down and the soil moist (but not too moist) in your strawberry patch.
I also use strawberry rocks to keep critters, especially birds confused. I simply get some rocks out of the yard, wash them, and spray paint them to generally look like strawberries. If you have children at home, it might be a fun family art project. You can get as artistic and detailed as you’d like. Put a clear coat sealer on the painted rocks so they will weather well in the garden.
I’ve been doing strawberry rocks for many years and they really do work! Place the painted rocks around your plants. Birds that try your strawberry rocks will find them to be a real pain in the beak and be reluctant to return to your strawberry patch.
Laurie's Leaves 