Strawberries in May

I love strawberries.

I still remember as a tiny kid walking through the field with my grandpa, and he stoops and pulls something out of the wet weeds and says “this is for you.” 

I recoil in momentary childish horror, expecting a bug, or maybe a vegetable, but then realize a familiar shape and color - a tiny strawberry. Sweeter, more intense, infinitely more perfumed than the sour, plastic-firm, fist-sized lumps I’d spend the rest of my life seeing at the grocer while still thinking of that red jewel my grandpa found in a hot summer field, decades ago. 

I was infinitely disappointed when my lovely aunt taught me to use wild strawberries to make a vinaigrette for salad (at that time I still refused to eat vegetables).

O’ the childhood fury when I realized that a few wild strawberries in a dressing doesn’t make the entire salad taste of strawberry. 

Now, as a gardener with a not-too-shabby CV of experience under my fingernails, I’m in love with strawberry care. We applaud our zucchini and tomatoes, but almost instantly tire of them, because frankly, they grow themselves. We sit in the shade and drink lemonade and the plant hands us another zucchini, and we politely say “thank you” and set it aside. 

Strawberries, on the other hand, require *just enough* work to make the reward worth it. They’re absolute easy successes, but not by reflex. By care. And then, when you return to the kitchen with a colander full of glowing summer carbuncles, you know your work paid off.

After all; nobody would care about finding the Holy Grail if it was just sitting on the coffee table. 

You have to put a little effort in.

Underplant your fruit trees with strawberries. Strawberries are shallow-rooted and won’t interfere with the tree’s need for space, plus they’ll help act as a living “mulch” for the tree, conserving moisture and keeping the roots cool in summer’s heat. 

Alpine strawberries are great for this, as they’re less aggressive spreaders - they don’t propagate with “runners” (i.e. side-shoots) like standard strawberries, plus they’re best for kitchen-uses if you plant a ton of them, and the real-estate under a tree is usually up for grabs. 

I plant the variety “Mignonette,” available online at my favorite Raintree Nursery, or from my local friends at Gethsemane Gardens here in Chicago. They’re a little more productive and bear higher-quality, slightly larger (though still tiny) fruit. They’re also wonderfully hardy - I picked my final strawberry in late October last year.

Modern non-Alpine strawberries are great additions to any kitchen garden; easy, productive, and require only a bit of care. I planted two dozen  “Eversweet” last year (from Raintree Nursery) and two dozen “Mara des Bois” this year, from Harris Nursery. 

Strawberries ordered in winter arrive as dormant plugs - little corks of stem with a ball of frizzy brown roots, and, if you’re lucky, a silvery curl of leaf-shoot. They look hopeless, but with an hour’s soak in water and a nice garden bed to tuck them into, they’ll be a bushy little pad of leaves by April.  

If you missed a winter order, you can easily find plants at your local garden center, though I find your variety-selection to be minimal, and you’ll pay an intense premium. I got 25 dormant crowns in February for about fifteen bucks. The garden centers sell a single plant for five dollars… clever advance planning will save you lots.

First-year berries need harsh training. They’re blissfully precocious, and will try to bloom and set fruit almost the second the snow melts (running them risk of frost damage on the flowers and fruit). However, the plants will be much healthier and productive with a stronger root system, which needs to be encouraged by preventing their precociousness. 

Snip off all flowerbuds and runners (long, pointed stems reaching out wide to start a new plant) until midsummer. This will ensure they put their energy into the roots instead of low-quality early fruits. You’ll still get fruit the first year in late summer, plus you’ll have better plants in the long-term. 

Keep an eye on your berries. Strawb’s are susceptible to many fungal diseases, and are beloved by slugs, earwigs, mice, and birds. None of these problems are too tough to control, but catching early signs will spell the difference between a lost berry and a lost harvest.

Mulching well with clean substrate and keeping the patch clean of dead and damaged leaves and fruit will also help minimize fungal issues. 

Keep your berries picked! Moldy, spoiled berries left in the patch by lazy gardeners attract bugs and mice, who quickly move on to the good berries. Plus, the more you pick, the more the plants produce!

Later in the season… I’ll share strawberry recipes, and we’ll talk about propagating your plants; a well-tended patch will give you tons of extra growth to expand your borders and share with your friends. Purchase once, harvest forever. 

Cheers,

T