Growing strawberries can be very rewarding. This guide helps you to plant and maintain strawberries and will show some things you can do with strawberries in the kitchen.

Pick Your Own

If you simply want to skip straight to the eating you can obviously buy strawberries at any supermarket but why not pick your own? There are lots of farms and small holdings all over the country where you can go along with your family, pick up a basket and grab as many as you want and pay as you leave.

Warning, you may find it hard to not eat as you pick! When strawberries are this fresh they are at their best. When picking make sure you buy them just ripe and you won't be disappointed.

Often picking your own is cheaper than buying in supermarkets but more than that, it is more satisfying knowing where the strawberries have come from. Also you are doing your bit to support your local grower and keep the food miles down.

How do I plant and maintain strawberries?

For those that want to plant and 'grow your own' this bits for you. There are a few options.

1. Use the seeds from the previous year's crop to grow your own from seed.
2. Buy seeds from a garden centre or seed catalogue. Simply enter 'seed catalogues' in your search engine and browse what they have to offer. Buying these seeds will usually cost £2 or £3 but you will get quite a few good quality seeds for your money.
3. Buy a plant already growing from a garden centre. This will cost you about £1.50 per plant depending on how developed they are. If they are just flowering then they will probably cost you more as the fruit isn't far off.

Option 1 is the most satisfying but also the most work. To do this you will need you will need several different varieties of strawberries. Strawberry growers tend to grow strawberries that can self pollinate which grow strawberries good for eating but not good producing clones of the parent. By having a few different varieties the strawberries from the male plants can fertilize the female plants.

Once you have your seeds, a lot of people place them on a moist tissue overnight to give them a head start in a greenhouse or indoors. The next day you can fill seed trays with compost and water. Keep moist while the seeds are developing, the plant should appear.

Once the seed has developed into a small plant that can be handled you can then plant individually in a strawberry pot which are available from most garden centres. Strawberry pots have numerous holes around the pot that the plants can be inserted into so that they can slightly hang at an angle for when they fruit.

It is advisable to slowly introduce the plants to the outside, perhaps keeping them in a cold frame over night for a few days to begin with.
Strawberries are thirsty plants especially when flowering/fruiting so keep them well watered, try to avoid letting them dry out too much. It's worth the extra effort for extra special tasty fruit.

In the past the strawberry season was early June to mid August. Now days with polytunnels and greenhouses the season can be extended from mid April to mid December.

Keep an eye on the strawberries for garden pests.

Eating strawberries

I am sure that you don't need any help with eating your strawberries so I have listed a few ideas to help you decide what to make from them.

1. You could go for the obvious of strawberries and cream. This is an old favourite especially around the time of the Wimbledon Tennis tournament.
2. Another favourite is strawberries sprinkled with Sugar.
3. Strawberry Jam can also be made using pectin for setting of the Jam.