Should you grow strawberries?

Homegrown strawberries are one of my favorite plants to grow. I interplant strawberries and asparagus in my bed. Maintenance simply requires a good mulch and an annual application of fertilizer in the late summer. The perennials are the first to welcome the growing season every year. Since they are easily preserved, we can enjoy them even on the coldest winter days. But they have a reputation for producing disappointing harvests. Many people find the individual strawberries or the overall harvest unfruitful. In reality, small harvests and berries are a function of how the plants are grown. To get a good strawberry harvest, you need to be a good strawberry farmer. Here are some questions to ask to determine whether you have the disposition and space requirements to make a good strawberry farmer.

Do you have at least a 3 ft x 6 ft space you can devote to a strawberry patch?

One individual strawberry plant will produce 150-300 individual berries across 4-6 weeks. I get roughly 1-3 per day from each plant. So unless you have quite a few plants, your daily (and even weekly) harvest is almost frustrating. If you have a small amount of space, it might be too much year-round garden real estate to devote to a plant that only produces for a few weeks out of the year. However, with a 3-foot x 6-foot bed you could pull in half a gallon of strawberries a week during peak season. That seems worthwhile to me.

Do you have patience?

You won’t be able to get big strawberries the first year you grow them. Conventional wisdom is to either plant in the fall for a spring harvest or pick flowers off the first year (meaning you will get 0 strawberries). It’s not the end of the world if you let them grow in the first year, but the berries you get that first year will be tiny. You’re better off just using that first year energy to develop strong roots.

Do you have a good “you-pick” option nearby?

If you have a good “you-pick” strawberry farm nearby, you might find the experience of spending a few hours with your family there more rewarding than growing your own. If you don’t, it’s worth transforming your landscape beds at home into a small strawberry farm. Homegrown strawberries taste like a different fruit than what you find at the grocery store.

Are you the type of person who gets excited about gardening in the spring but loses enthusiasm by June?

If you’re the type of person who gets excited to start a garden in the spring, only to abandon your plants by July then strawberries may just be the fruit for you. They produce for about a month in the early part of the growing season when hopes are high. Then go pretty much dormant for the rest of the year. If it doesn’t rain a lot in your area, you’ll need to water once a week until winter dormancy to keep the plants alive. As long as you’ve mulched around the plants, you can take it easy for the rest of the year.

Do you have little bitty kids?

Strawberries are easy for little kids to pick and eat. It’s a great fruit to get them interested in the garden. Is there a better garden harvest for little kids than strawberries? There are so many delightful things you can make with them and they are even better raw. If you have the initial patience and space, get those plants in the ground.