Have your strawberries stopped?

[magz.mccarthy]

When do strawberries stop producing fruit? I have 12 plants, I can't remember what type, and have been eating lots of them for around a month now.

The reason I ask is that I share my allotment with a few mates. They used to have big gardens where they grew veg and things, but now in london we all live in flats so I said they could plant whatever they want on mine. My and o.h. can't cultivate all the land ourselves in the first year anyway, it's totally wild. But they are starting to overstep the boundaries a little and met one of them the other day walking down the road with a big face and hands full of strawberries! Strawberries which i planted, weeded and looked after incessantly for the last few months while they were nowhere to be seen. I haven't found and fruit myself for around a week and am wondering should I tell them to stop taking fruit (which I don't really want to, they are a nice pair of blokes), or am I getting annoyed for no reason at the end of the fruiting season.

Yours in paranoid craziness,
Margaret

[Alison]

If you're planting and looking after things then you should have the produce. However, if they've taken you to your word and planted some of their own stuff in your spare space then it's their produce. Sounds like you need to stop looking after their stuff for them and then maybe they'll do it themselves. To avoid too much arguement then you might be better not saying too much this time but you need to make the boundaries with them clearer.

Re when strawberries stop producing, depends on the variety, sorry can't be much more help than that! Some are early, some late etc. Can vary from season to season also and certainly in different parts of the country.

[pdblake]

Mine haven't even started yet

[magz.mccarthy]

yup we gotta lay down a few rules. They helped me plant the onions and garlic at the end of last year and haven't done much since, except scatter beetroot seeds between EVERYTHING so that i can't hoe for fear of wiping out their darling beetroots. I've no problem with them taking stuff, so long as it's not the whole crop. I'll have a chat with them over the weekend. No doubt though as soon as my 12 (what was i thinking) courgette plants start fruiting I'll want them around!

[Hans Mum]

No doubt though as soon as my 12 (what was i thinking) courgette plants start fruiting I'll want them around!

Twelve you might need more than 2 people to help with that many