We have plenty of strawberry plants but this year tasted not one strawberry. Despite many many flowers, the cold late Spring coupled with some very ingenuous rodents meant that by the time I was thinking about harvesting they were starting to disappear. It turns out that the squirrels had every one. Once I realised who the culprits were, I put netting over the plants,  but undeterred the squirrels stamped all over it, burrowed under it and carried on helping themselves. So I am wondering, are strawberries worth growing on my plot?

The strawberry plants however are completely prolific and seem to thrive in the conditions I have here. They have burst the banks of my. admittedly poorly edged raised bed and range out across the kitchen garden. Part of me likes the wildness of this and admires the sheer energy of the plants that root almost everywhere, even on the paths, however I feel that if I am to raise a crop adequately next year I need to reign them in and create a bed that I can defend.

Ok , so scruffy doesn’t even cover it,  so I am re-using some (extremely heavy) concrete blocks from down the garden to create better edges to the bed. This will give more height and I can also get deeper soil. This part of the garden has very shallow soil and dries out fast so making deeper beds with edges that will last ( unlike the current wooden ones that are rotting and falling apart)  is a priority.

I’m quite pleased with it, both as a practical solution but also the fact that I am re-using materials that I already have. I looked at the price of raised beds online and was shocked, and while I do have some lengths of timber I am not so confident in my DIY abilities to make new  timber edges. However the  blocks are so heavy that I think it best to only do a bit at a time. I did this length today and that was enough for my arms and back. It is a good Autumn job though as it makes me nice and warm and I can get on with it from time to time.

Of course, in clearing up the spreading runners I now have a many new strawberry plants that I have spent the wet afternoon potting up ready of next year. Given that this bed of strawberries was already established when we came here nearly four years ago it is probably time to create a new bed with fresh plants, perhaps even using another area of the kitchen garden and putting another crop in this bed.