Strawberry Ground Cover

Who doesn't love a good ground cover? You have less weeds, less much expense and they are usually pretty to look at. To make it even better, why shouldn't it grow fruit? I found a cranberry ground cover but it requires the same soil treatment as blueberries so I am going to stick to strawberries. I don't really like cranberries but I have this odd need to try and grow everything if I can get something off of it.

Supposedly strawberries like slightly acid soil. I have heard that using the strawberry food from Gurneys is great but I haven't tried it yet. Think I might in the spring. My kids and husband LOVE strawberries. I went to Costco and bought the huge container on Sunday. By Tuesday afternoon the kids were asking for more.

I purchased two ever bearing plants at Lowes in June. One of these has been a star, producing runners and berries at a Duggar rate, and one has been nominal. I have no idea why one is still fruiting and the other isn't. What I do know is these things send out runners like crazy, that means more berry plants for free. WOO HOO.

 You can see all the runners this plant still has to be transplanted. Between the two plants I had 14 transplants this summer by August. I potted both of them in 1/2 garden soil and half potting. No idea if that is the right thing to do but as they did really well I am not complaining. 

 This guy stopped producing in August. No idea why. both pictures were taken September 13th.




I had a really boring bed on the side yard. It is still boring but I am working on it. I had verbena ground cover which was acutally quite unattractive looking. For some reason it wouldn't stay on the ground and grew like a crazy wild Einstein mane all over the place. There were also two evergreen shrubs, of which I pulled one out to what must have been the neighbors delight. It took me 1/2 hour to get out the small one of grunting, heaving and swearing. To add insult to injury I was stupid enough to not wear long pants and scratched my legs up terribly. Face palm. When the next ones time comes, I will know what to do.

Here the little sucker is.

Check out that root structure. I finally had to hack at the tap root to get it out. Looking at it, it doesn't seem that impressive. I totally feel like a guy who caught the big ass fish only to have it revealed it was 10 inches. So just trust me when I tell you I felt like a stud when it finally came out. This is a back view which was dead from facing the house side. No one wanted it, sad, so I am going to use the needles to help acidify the blueberry bed and burn the rest. Should be one hell of a campfire.

Anyway, pulled out the ground cover and my one manly bush and transplanted strawberries. I should have waited until the plant got bigger in some areas before transplanting but I think they will have time to get established before winter.

I am going to construct a trellis and plant arctic kiwi to cover the wall. That is for next year though.

Th is is the other offending bush. There are several day lilies in the bed. I am going to keep them until I figure out what else I can put there for visual appeal.

All in all I am happy with where this is going. I have other strawberry transplants in other beds as well. I am going to do alpine strawberries in the front yard around the trees since they don't send out runners.

And of course my mistake. I think I transplanted this too soon and it didn't get enough water at first. It is still holding on though.  You are supposed to pinch off new flowers to they produce more later. Ugh, I have a problem doing that but hey, I will do it next year...promise.