Strawberry - The Accidental Backyard Gardener

2024

With everything else going on with my garden I saw a strawberry plant on sale at Home Depot, and again, I had a ‘what the hell’ moment and bought it. I heard they are easy to grow so let’s give it a try. I think this was in mid April.

I planted this in the metal trough raised bed where I have some blueberries planted. They are similar in their soil needs so why not. This plant loves it here! It took right off and started growing and by late May it had buds and 1 berry. Before I could cage the plant a bird got the berry. 🙁

My first strawberry plant and it has it's first bud — My first strawberry plant and it has it’s first bud

It is now early June and the plant has been caged for a couple of weeks and it is doing great. Lots of buds and some fruit ripening too.

The strawberry is caged and protected from birds and other critters

6-18-2024.

Picked, and ate, my first strawberry today. It was delicious!

I had planted the first strawberry plant in a raised bed next to 2 blueberry bushes. I then moved the blueberries to new homes and replaced them with 2 Tristan strawberries. After that I made a pvc and green fence cage to protect the berries from the local critters, but allow the pollinators in.

My raised strawberry bed with a cage to protect the plants from critters

February, 2025

The Ozark Beauty and Tristan plants are wintering-over just fine. Hoping to get a nice harvest this Summer.

The Ozark Beauty's are wintering-over just fine — The Ozark Beauty’s are wintering-over just fine

The Tristan are wintering-over just fine.