In my own garden (now separate from my mom and Ouma’s one) I have had strawberries for a few seasons now. In my opinion they are the toughest plants I know… My Rottweiler decided that the troughs that the strawberries were planted in were the perfect place for him to start digging and burying all manner of toys and treats. Every time we left him home alone we’d come home to all of the strawberry plants outside the freshly turned over soil in the troughs… I’m sure you’re wondering why he got away with this more than once. Well, let’s just say that bond between man and dog is stronger than bond between man and woman so dog was not firmly disciplined and strawberries were replanted the next morning once everyone had calmed down and peace was restored. Not much was expected of these poor plants (they were uprooted a total of six times before woman won battle for discipline of dog and stopped giving him treats whilst not under supervision) but this summer we had strawberries every morning – not tons of them, bearing in mind that there were only 8 plants to provide them, but enough for us to each have five or six every morning (we were unable to put them aside until there were more as they were just too delicious!)
The strawberry season is now properly over but the plants have sent out many, many suckers or baby strawberry plants. These have been carefully secured to seedling trays until they take root, at which time the connection to the parent plant is severed and the little plant goes solo. One sucker sent out from the parent plant has typically produced 3-4 babies (a little plant forms on the end of the sucker and then that sucker continues on to make the next little plant until 3 or 4 have been produced). Each of the plants has sent out 5-6 of these suckers (sometimes they send one at a time, others have sent out all of them simultaneously). Unfortunately, some of my little plants were severed from their parent plants and uprooted at the same time by workers at the house who didn’t know what was going on… we lost about a tray and a half like this (9 plants) but managed to rescue many. I’ve currently got 5 full seedling trays and 7 single pots of new strawberry plants and have noticed that some of my older plants have developed 2-3 crowns which I have carefully separated into their own containers too. These look healthy so far and I am hoping that I haven’t destroyed their fruit producing capacity for next season…
I have found the wholesale company for wall baskets – but you have to buy a minimum of 70 baskets… I’m doing it! I’ve got the wall space and it’s a great way of maximizing the use of space as well as an attractive addition to an otherwise bare wall. I’m hoping the wall baskets will cool the ambient temperature of the area down a little – it’s outside my guest suite and a little hostile and hot! I have also added my Raised Vegetable Beds to this area and it’s already looking more attractive – thanks for the help Dad!
My only concern with the hanging baskets is how to grow the suckers when they come next year – they’ve got to be secured carefully for about 2 weeks before their umbilical cord can be severed – maybe a ladder can be strategically places next to the baskets… an update on this will follow once I’ve worked it out!
