Making a Strawberry Bed

[JetSetPhil]

Today I took on a lesson of learning by doing.
I decided to make a strawberry bed. First I measured and dug over the site, I then raked the soil out and placed black polythene on top with rocks to support it.

The bed is 2.25m by 3.2m Two rows are runners that I grew from older strawberry plants in the garden. The last row are elsanta bare root plants that I bought online.

The pictures show my progress, any hints or tips would be most welcome.

[rustylady]

Why have you planted your strawberries through black plastic?

[Shadylane]

I'd say to supress weeds. They won't get any water that way though, you'd be better off using weed suppressant fabric which lets water through. I keep meaning to do that but I probabaly never will

[rustylady]

It's only a fairly small bed. Would have been better to weed it thoroughly and then plant the strawberries. This time of year shouldn't be much new weed growth anyway.

[Two_Sheds]

In your first photo, what kind of grass is that? I'm hoping it's not couch ...

[redser]

Sorry but the plastic will be a problem as mentioned above for watering and feeding. Weed fabric would be better. Seeing as you are starting a new bed a good amount of manure or compost dug in would help the plants a great deal. Dont worry, it's all easily fixed. And as they are only newly planted you can start again.
If you dont fancy that at least poke small holes in the plastic to allow rain water in and also so you can give them a liquid feed when fruiting. Good luck

[yummersetter]

I'm working on a 60ft strawberry bed at the moment. I put new strawberry plants a year ago in a raised bed as a holding area and covered the ( orchard grass) area for the strawberries with cardboard and piled well rotted horse manure on top. In the spring it had rotted down and I replanted the strawberries in the first 20ft, digging holes through the cardboard. I've just gone through the rest digging out a few couches, nettles and buttercups and will re-cover the unplanted area with cardboard and manure this weekend and next spring plant out the runners from the first ones and some new varieties in the middle 20ft section. And the same next year for the last section.

[JetSetPhil]

@plastic my mistake it is weed fabric not plastic Sorry for the confusion.

im not sure what type of grass it is but it didnt look very invasive when I weeded it out (no continuous roots systems etc.)

[Newton]

Did you take a photo with the grass dug out?

[yummersetter]

I was banned from using plastic because it would catch in the mower when we cut the grass around it. Are you going to edge it?

[JetSetPhil]

I was banned from using plastic because it would catch in the mower when we cut the grass around it. Are you going to edge it?

I plan to remove the rest of the weeds and make bark paths around it once ive made the other beds I want to create.

@ Newton No because I forgot to take one at that stage =/

Also the black fabric is fibrous and porous so I presume it will be fine or will I need to create any drainage holes. The water should soak through it. I also looked up couch grass and Ive encounter it before and it was a pain to get rid of. The grass is definitely not couch.

There is not really much need to edge it except to make it look neat, I have enough stones to go fully around but i'm not sure its really necessary.

[Two_Sheds]

not really much need to edge it except to make it look neat

No,not necessary at all. However, some marigolds or pansies or something would look pretty planted all the way round your edges, and bring in pollinating insects too

[JetSetPhil]

No,not necessary at all. However, some marigolds or pansies or something would look pretty planted all the way round your edges, and bring in pollinating insects too

That sounds like a great idea TS. Seeing as I already have some, do you think primroses would be a good alternative?

[northepaul]

Looks good!

I might peg down the edges of the fabric though, incase they come up and weeds/other horrid things (rats or mice) live underneath during the winter.

[greenjelly]

My maternal mother's family were commercial strawberry growers in hampshire in the early part of the 20th century and I seem to have some kind of inherited success with strawberry's.

I'm not an expert but this is what I do and it always works well - dig over your bed and lay over the top of the soil the best manure you can find either well rotted farmyard manure or garden centre bought - don't dig it in but leave it on the surface. cover the entire bed with weed control fabirc and peg it down well at the edges then plant the strawberry's through this. Protect the emerging fruits with straw but clear it at the end of the season as slugs and snails will make a snug home in this. Also if the summer is wet be alert and check around the plants by hand. I've seen some books advise to cut off the leaves at the end of the season - I've never done this and it's never made a difference. Take off the old dead or diseased leaves and detach your runners to replant these for new palnts next year.

This type of bed should last 3 years before you need to redo the whole thing from scratch.

Your bed looks great - do peg down the edges of your fabric though to stop beasties going under neath and giving you a shock when you pick your strawberry's. I wouldnt worry about the grass around the edges - my old allotment was rampant with couch grass but didnt hinder the strawberry's at all.

Dont plant them too deep in the ground - strawberry's only have small roots and prefer to be planted on a small mound rather in a hole as they dont like to be waterlogged. They like a good cold period so if we get a few good frosts and not too wet a summer you should have some lovely fruit.

MMMMMMMM.... strawberry's and cream - yummy