Quick and Easy Gardening Tip:How To Grow Bigger Strawberries Next Year

A Berry Sweet Breakfast Harvested Back on May 19th

Realization of the Day:
It's somehow September!

If you're a seasonal eater in the northern hemisphere, apples and pears are probably the fruits in the forefront of your mind right now, but if you're also a gardener, it's time for you to be thinking about strawberries. Next year's harvest may be many months away, but berry size is actually determined now.


Strawberry Blossoms full of Juicy Promise on April 21st (and a cute little inchworm)

When I moved to Missouri and started gardening on a much larger scale than I had been in my itty bitty Northern California backyard, one of the books I turned to time and time again (this was back in the archaic pre-google days) was Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Chemical-Free Gardening and Landscaping Techniques. Since I was pretty much clueless, this book was a tremendous help.

While The Vegetable Gardener's Bible has long been the first book I now grab when I have veggie growing questions (I highly recommend this wonderful publication for gardeners of all levels—you can read my review of it here), I still often find myself flipping through the pages of Rodale's Encyclopedia because it's full of the kinds of helpful tips I just don't find anywhere else. I mean, discovering this simple secret to growing bigger strawberries was in itself worth the price of the book (which, as of right now, is as low as $1.50 at amazon.)


Growing Green on May 13th

Here's what a little sidebar I found in Rodale's Encyclopedia called 'Strawberry Futures' says:
If the growing conditions are favorable in August and September, you should have large berries the next season. But if conditions are less than favorable, your fruit will probably turn out to be small.

Now they don't actually explain what those 'favorable' growing conditions are, and it isn't as if could change the weather even if we knew what we wanted it to do, but the next paragraph says:

Researchers have also discovered that a few days of rain in the fall can mean the difference between a bountiful crop and a mediocre harvest several months later. So if it looks like a dry fall, make time to water your strawberry bed thoroughly at least twice before the end of September.


My Bed of Cavendish Strawberries on August 23rd (read more about them here)

Between the couple of good waterings I miraculously remembered to give my 4'x8' raised strawberry bed back in August and the 2½ unexpected—and much appreciated—inches of rain we got last Friday, I should be set, even if I space out the strawberries for the rest of the month (which is quite likely to happen).

So if you haven't had a good rain lately and you're anywhere near as scatterbrained as I am, stop reading this and go give your strawberry plants a nice long soak right now. You can thank me for those big beautiful berries come spring—if you remember, that is.

Here are links to my previous posts about growing strawberries, including one that explains how to prepare your strawberry bed for winter (because after watering now, we're not yet done for the year):
6/5/05: Strawberries from Garden to Kitchen
5/21/06: A Beautiful Breakfast!
5/27/06: Me, Cary, & Bear vs. The Turtles
10/28/07: Growing Strawberries & Preparing Your Bed for Winter
5/28/08: Successfully Growing Strawberries
7/20/08: Strawberries in the Garden & an Orange Yogurt Cake Recipe in the Kitchen

© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the fruity foodie farm blog where those gigantic commercial strawberries may be bred for size with no regard whatsoever to taste, but that doesn't mean we home gardeners can't strive for slightly larger yet still incredibly flavorful berries. With a little timely watering, our strawberry harvests can have it all.

Orange Yogurt Loaf Cake:An Easy 4th of July Dessert Recipe

Take a Break and Have Some Cake!

Remember that orange yogurt cake I served up for breakfast alongside a pile of freshly picked strawberries from the garden a few weeks back?

Well I've been tinkering with the recipe and am now perfectly pleased with the results. This is the kind of easy cake recipe I love to have in my collection, and I know I'll be turning to it again and again. It mixes up quickly, stands up to being transported even on hot afternoons, and stays moist for several days. Like most baked goods it also freezes beautifully, and it can even be sliced while still frozen. Serve in bowls topped with fresh berries and ice cream or on napkins at picnics and potlucks.

You'll find the recipe in my post, Strawberries in the Garden & an Orange Yogurt Cake Recipe in the Kitchen, over on Farmgirl Fare, where it's already been receiving rave reviews. Enjoy!

Will goodies from the garden or farmers' market be part of your 4th of July celebration?

© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where we love homegrown fruits and vegetables but are also crazy about cake.

Garden Journal Entry 5/31/08: Seasonal Strawberry Eating At Its Sweetest & Juiciest Best!

Orange Yogurt Pound Cake with Freshly Picked Strawberries & Mint

Realization of the Day:
Sometimes you just need to have a slab of cake for breakfast - with a big side of strawberries.

This morning I trudged back to The Shack from the front field, sweat-soaked and starving after wrestling with portable electric sheep fencing for an hour under the hot sun, and promptly treated myself to this plate of ruby red heaven. Oh, and there was a large scoop of creamy French vanilla ice cream involved, too.

Now it's back out to the field and the fencing - then hopefully the garden!

© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where we just may have to have a repeat of this breakfast for lunch.

Garden Journal Entry 5/28/08:Successfully Growing Strawberries!

Jewels of the Kitchen Garden

Realization of the Day:
I forgot to have strawberries for breakfast.

Can you believe it? These gorgeous beauties were out in the garden, hanging by their stems and just waiting to be devoured, yet somehow they completely slipped my mind. I had a whole wheat tortilla with peanut butter and - get this - storebought strawberry jam instead. It's embarrassing, really. At least the jam was organic - and I remembered about the strawberries in time for a sweet and juicy mid-morning snack.


The Thriving Strawberry Bed Today (And look at all those healthy weeds surrounding it!)

Last year I planted a brand new strawberry patch in one of my 4' x 8' raised beds. (I'm enamored with raised bed gardening, which I started doing 8 years ago, and one of these days I'll get around to telling you why, I promise.) My old bed had served me well for several years, but even if you do things like thin them out and mow down the plants (which I probably didn't do since they are in a raised bed after all), a strawberry bed will only last for so long. Most of my plants actually kind of evaporated, to be taken over by large clumps of very happy grass - which made a wonderful dog bed. I even have photos. But I digress.

Anyway, in January of 2007 I ordered 30 Cavendish strawberry plants (which are actually more like little bundles of roots with a crown and maybe a leaf or two than actual plants) for $9.95 from my beloved Pinetree Garden Seeds, tucked them in the ground (not too deep, not too shallow) on May 7th (they don't ship you your plants until after the danger of frost), watered them regularly, and snipped off every single blossom that dared to make an appearance. That's right - no berries the first year means much bigger and healthier plants the next. It isn't easy, but it's worth it, trust me.

For the first several months I also snipped off all the runners so that the plants wouldn't concentrate their energy on producing baby offspring plants, but when the deer started sneaking into the garden at night and munching down the entire bed (this was before I thought to cover it with floating row cover to deter them - which worked), I decided that a few extra runners to fill things out might in fact be a good idea. What I did was wait for them to put down a few roots and become established, then I cut the mother cord and left them on their own. They did great.

Yes! This is What gardening is All About

Of Cavendish strawberries, a midseason variety, the Pinetree Garden Seeds catalog says this:

High yields of large berries with excellent flavor make this a good choice for home gardens or roadside stands. High resistance in red stele and intermediate resistance to verticillium wilt. Ripen over a long season. Grows best in zones 3 - 8.

Miller Nurseries, a family-owned company in business since 1934 that I've never ordered from but that sounds good (have you?), says this about Cavendish:

It has been a long time since we introduced a strawberry that has made new friends as Cavendish has done. Cavendish is proven winter-hardy through Nova Scotia’s extra-frigid temperatures. It runners so well a child can easily establish a solid plant stand and it produces crops weeks longer than other Junebearers. It’s so bountiful it yields much larger crops per square foot than lesser berries. It is highly resistant to red stele. This is simply the richest, berriest-tasting strawberry you’ve ever let melt on your tongue. Or put in a shortcake. Or drizzled over ice cream. If you’re ready for new pleasure in strawberry flavor, you simply have to try Cavendish. No longer premium priced. 25 virus-free plants are $8.55, 50 are $14.45, and 100 are $26.85.

And of Cavendish strawberries I say this:
They are absolutely, positively, delicious!

One of my very first posts on Farmgirl Fare was all about homegrown strawberries, and in it I confessed to having become a purist, feeling that the best way to savor a batch of luscious strawberries requires doing nothing more than making sure you have clean fingers and a plain white dish.

I will admit that I ate the first strawberries of the season this year standing out in the garden, and it doesn't get much better than that. And yet I can't stop thinking about the several inches of thick and oh-so-whippable cream that comes atop the gallon jars of fresh milk I buy from a cow down the road. Then there are the oatmeal scones I'd been thinking about baking today - which, when you think about it, are a lot like little shortcakes. And the Orange Yogurt Cake recipe I've been drooling over for the past 3 days and am now thinking would taste wonderful with a side of sliced strawberries. (Nicole is calling it bread, but let's not kid ourselves - there may not be a thick layer of buttercream frosting in sight, but this is definitely cake.)

Um, yeah, sorry but I really gotta go. If you need me I'll be in the kitchen. Or the strawberry bed.

So what's your favorite way to enjoy fresh strawberries?

Related strawberry links:
Farmgirl Fare 6/4/05: Strawberries
What's Growin' On 5/21/06: A Beautiful Breakfast! (obviously my memory was better back then)
What's Growin' On 5/27/06: Me, Cary, & Bear vs. The Turtles
What's Growin' On 10/28/07: Growing Strawberries & Preparing Your Bed for Winter

© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, where the best part about this year's strawberry crop is that so far that hasn't been a single turtle - or turtle bite mark - in sight!

What's Growin' On 10/28/07: First Frost! Plus Growing Strawberries How To Prepare Your Strawberry Bed ror Winter

Cool Cavendish Strawberry Plants

Realization Of The Day:
Even though I'm usually expecting it, the first frost of the season always comes as somewhat of a surprise.

I think it's because I get spoiled in early October. Things have cooled down (most years anyway), the majority of ravenous insects have disappeared, and autumn rainstorms mean I no longer need to don my Watering Queen hat every day. Garden duties are greatly diminished, and nothing really needs to be protected at night yet. Even the greenhouse can stay open and vented all the time.

October in the garden feels positively luxurious. Then all of a sudden the frost shows up, and I sort of start to panic.

It really isn't too much of a problem yet, though (and everything does look pretty all covered in frost), as it won't be getting this cold every night for a while. Our days should stay fairly warm, too. Next week it's even supposed to pop back up into the 70s. So at this point, protection from the occasional cold snap simply means covering the autumn crops with floating row cover, which can even be left on your plants during the day if you're feeling lazy.

All I have to remember is that this is the time of the year when we need to adjust the temperature forecasts to reflect the cooler weather down here in our little valley, technically known as a 'low lying area.' While the official report was 41° at 8:30am this morning, we were at 32°.

Meanwhile, the strawberry bed doesn't need any attention just yet. The latest issue of Progressive Farmer magazine (you never know where you'll find helpful gardening tips) offers this advice for preparing your strawberry beds for the upcoming winter:

Strawberry plants are hardy perennials, but the alternate freezing and thawing that heaves them from the ground is what you must protect against. Cover the strawberries with 4 to 6 inches of hay, which is loose enough to let them breathe. Wait until after several frosts, but not enough cold to freeze the ground. You do not need to cut the foliage back before mulching.

I've always covered my strawberry bed with a thick layer of hay each year, but I never realized it was to protect the plants from ground heaves. This is the same reason you need to cover your fall-planted garlic (which I meant to plant yesterday!).

The only problem I have is that my beagle, Robin, loves to curl up on what she has decided are hay beds built especially for her. At almost 11 years old, though, she is semi-retired and will probably be spending much of her days and nights curled up next to the living room woodstove this winter instead (where she is right now, in a plush round cat bed that is much too small for her but that she insists on squeezing into anyway).

I created a new 4' x 8' strawberry bed this year, which I filled on May 7th with 30 Cavendish plants I ordered for $9.95 from my beloved Pinetree Garden Seeds. According to their catalog, this midseason variety offers "high yields of large berries with excellent flavor that make this a good choice for home gardens or roadside stands. High resistance to red stele and intermediate resistance to verticillium wilt. Berries ripen over a long season."

So far the plants are doing great, despite having nearly the entire bed eaten down to almost nothing twice over the summer by deer. Covering it with old sheets at night helped with that problem.

As difficult as it always is, especially since my old strawberry bed was history this year, I pinched off all the blooms so the plants could focus their energy on building up a strong root system rather than producing berries. For a while I pinched all the runners off, too, but if your plants are as vigorous as these were, this is a job that can easily away from you.

At one point I left the runners that had already rooted themselves into the ground, but snipped the connecting stem from each mother plant. Basically I filled in the empty spaces for free. Then after the deer damage I just left the entire bed alone as I wasn't even sure if it would survive. But the plants came back with a vengeance and the entire bed is now completely filled in.

I already have high hopes for a bumper strawberry crop next spring. While others are busy conjuring up visions of sugarplums during the upcoming holiday season, I'll be dreaming of bowls and bowls of those sweet, jewel-like berries—and there won't be a single turtle in sight!

Other Strawberry Growing Posts:
6/5/05: Strawberries from Garden to Kitchen
5/21/06: A Beautiful Breakfast!
5/27/06: Cary, Bear, and Me vs. The Turtles
5/28/08: Successfully Growing Strawberries
7/20/08: Strawberries in the Garden & an Orange Yogurt Cake Recipe in the Kitchen
9/7/09: How To Grow Bigger Strawberries Next Year

© 2007 FarmgirlFare.com, the crisp and cool foodie farm blog where there never seem to be enough strawberries.

What's Growin' On: 5/21/06

Breakfast! (Wait. *checks clock*) Make That Late, Late Brunch!
(Wow. What happened to the morning?)

Realization Of The Day:
Well, the turtles didn't get them all (but they certainly ate more than their fair share).

Miscellaneous:
--A loud thunderstorm crashed through about 5am but didn't let loose with much rain. Still drippy outside. Glad I watered most of the garden yesterday, as this rain will do something more than simply evaporate right off the plants.
--The Orange Banana tomato plants had a very nice growth spurt and are looking mighty happy (as am I).
--The spring garlic had a huge growth spurt. They grew about 6 inches in a day. I was shocked to see that some of the leaves are about 12 inches high already. I think my plan just might work.

From Garden To Table:
--Yes, I did indeed devour all of these strawberries myself, sprinkled with just a touch of powdered sugar to get the juices flowing and sweeten up the few tarties. And while the purist in me found this simple preparation to be a most delightful very late breakfast, if someone had handed me a bowl of freshly whipped cream (one of my very favorite foods) or a glass of champagne as an accompaniment, I definitely would have accepted them.

Harvest For The Henhouse:
--Strawberry stems and a few imperfect berries. They adore fruit.
--Sweet hop clover (they turned their beaks up at it).
--Spicy, spicy, spicy mature arugula leaves (they loved them).

Coming Up In A Day Or Two:
--"I Can't Live Without. . . Grass Clippings!" What started as a tiny backyard lawn-sized article has grown into a golf course. Hope it's not all just due to manure. Ha ha, garden humor.

What's Growin' On: 5/12/06

(Horrifying) Realization Of The Day:
The very first bite of the very first ripe strawberry of the season was not taken by me. Damn turtles!




Okay, so here's the deal with my strawberries. I actually have two strawberry beds right now. The photo above shows the older bed--it's on the right side of the photo. Yes, that's it--where that super tall, lush, if-this-were-in-my-fields-I'd-be-farmer-of-the-year orchard grass is flourishing, and you can't for the life of you see a single strawberry plant. Pathetic, I know. On the left are the strawberry plants that jumped out of bed and are attempting to grow in the hard, unfertilized, black plastic and wood chip covered pathway. There was no way I was going to pull them up. I take my strawberries wherever I can get them. This is where the first ripe berry of the season was found.



This is the strawberry bed I planted last year with 24 locally grown "Super Strawberry" plants I bought at the spring Garden Club Plant Sale for $3.00. I had high hopes for them, but I obviously did something wrong (I believe it had to do with neglect and weeds) because as you can see, there is probably more volunteer dill growing in it than there are strawberry plants. (Do note my happy spring garlic sprouting up along the left edge of the bed. I stuck those cloves everywhere.) At least I like dill. Though, as I mentioned the other day, I don't have a single cucumber plant in the ground yet. But that happens every year so I am used to it.

Okay, back to the berries. You may have read that I have a problem with voracious, strawberry-loving turtles coming from (what I am sure is) miles around to feast on my prized, luscious red bounty. Actually, it's usually luscious, half-red bounty, and that is part of the problem--the turtles don't care if the berries aren't quite ripe. It wouldn't be so bad if they just stole a berry or two, but no, they take a bite out of one, move on to the next and take a bite out of it, and the next, and just keep going until they are so stuffed they cannot move. Then they nap, digest, and wake up hungrier than ever.

Turtles are sly creatures, and I rarely catch them in the act. But I have on occasion, and that is how I know they are the culprits. (Although last year I came upon a red-mouthed, full grown possum plopped down in the middle of my strawberry bed during broad daylight. My mind still refuses to completely believe that experience.) Anyway, I think the turtles have gone one step further toward total occupation of my strawberry territory. Because, you see, last year I didn't do a single thing differently in that strawberry bed than I had done in previous years. There was absolutely no reason for that orchard grass to show up and take over like it did.

The other evening Joe and I were out in the garden and as we walked by the grassy strawberry bed, he made some comment, and I said "I bet there's a turtle hiding in that grass right now." I mean, my dog can lay in there unseen. And then it hit me. "I bet the turtles planted that grass so they'd have a place to hide!" Joe laughed and gave me that "Okay, honey, whatever you say" look. But really, think about it. Birds build entire complicated nests by carrying around bits of grass and twigs in their beaks. How hard would it have been for a turtle to pull out a hunk of orchard grass last summer, carry it in his mouth over to my strawberry bed, and shake the seeds around? Voila! Come spring--instant, shaded hiding place right next to the berry buffet.

I know. You are probably rolling your eyes and wondering if there is something strange in our water. Or that maybe I've been getting too much fresh air and sunshine, as I have obviously lost it. But that is the curse of the dedicated foodie gardener. We'll do anything to hold onto our harvest, and we'll make extraordinary excuses to explain things--even if it means losing our minds in the process. Or perhaps it's just me.

I did manage to nab and devour two fully ripened strawberries out in the garden this morning. They were absolutely divine, and I plan to enjoy many more--whatever it takes. (Oh my. I just caught myself about to let out an evil-sounding laugh.)