Background information
Lawn care in spring - 7 tips to get your green in shape
by Andrea Rothenberger
Tips for your strawberry garden (and your first vegetables)
18.5.2017
Translation: machine translated
Today I would like to show you how to grow strawberries in the garden or on the balcony. Strawberries are one of the most popular plants. So why not plant your own strawberries in the garden or on the balcony?
My favourite is the month strawberry or the hanging strawberry. Eaten straight from the vine, both are sugary sweet and delicious and last for weeks and months. Strawberries can easily be grown in the garden or on the balcony and are absolutely child-friendly. In the garden you will want to give them a whole bed, on the balcony or patio you will want to plant them in suitable containers and hanging baskets.
1. What should I look out for when planting strawberries in the garden?
First and foremost, it is important that strawberries are planted in a garden bed that is not too shady. The garden bed should be no more than 120cm wide so that you can harvest the strawberries easily. Ideally, the bed should be located directly in the vegetable or neighbouring berry garden.
Strawberries love humus-rich and deep soil. It is therefore essential to enrich the soil in the garden bed with a little compost before planting. However, prepare the bed well and deeply beforehand. This is particularly important for "old" or compacted soil. The best way to do this is with a digging fork, which you use to dig deep into the bed. Then rake up the soil loosely with a garden trowel. The looser and more crumbly the soil is, the better the young strawberry plants will grow and develop later on.
2. Which fertiliser do I use
?
In addition to compost, you can apply some berry fertiliser or an organic fertiliser with a mineral balance to the soil and hoe it in before planting. Together with the humus-rich compost, this will give you a good start to the gardening season.
3. How to plant strawberries correctly
When planting strawberries, it is important that the pot ball of the strawberry plant is not planted too high, but also not too deep. As a rule of thumb: cover the strawberry plant's pot ball with 1 cm of soil. Important: Place the pot ball in water for at least one hour before planting. This will help the young plants to grow better.
4. What is the best planting time for strawberries?
One of the best times to plant strawberries is in summer, between the end of July and the end of August. The strawberry plants can grow optimally before winter and will produce a rich harvest the following year.
But it can also be planted in early spring in March and April without any problems. The harvest will not be quite as rich in the first year, but will be all the greater the following year.
5. Plant spacing and care measures
Plant in two rows with a row spacing of 60 - 90cm. Plant 25 - 30cm apart in the row. If planted too close together, strawberry plants and strawberries are easily affected by rot. Ensure that the crop rotation is observed! It should only be planted in areas where no strawberries have been planted for three years.
The strawberry plants begin to flower from mid-April to early May, depending on the weather and location. As soon as the strawberry plants start to set fruit, cover the plant with wood wool or straw. This reduces rotting of the strawberries and makes it a little more difficult for slugs to reach the delicious fruit.
6. Hanging strawberries as an alternative when space is limited
Hanging strawberries and climbing strawberries are a good alternative if there isn't much space available on the balcony. You can find out more here.
Now up to date: Sowing cucumbers and courgettes
Now is the time to sow cucumbers and courgettes. It is best to sow two seeds directly into a pot of approx. 9 - 12 cm and grow them on the windowsill or in a greenhouse. Be careful not to plant out too early! Neither cucumbers nor courgettes like it when it is wet and cold outside or when there are night frosts. It is therefore better to wait a little longer before planting out and to grow and set out the young plants in a light and cooler room or, even better, in a small greenhouse. I'll show you how to do this in detail here. It is best to plant cucumbers and courgettes in the garden from mid-May and wait for the ice saints (mid-May).
Beautiful hydrangeas as a welcome gift
I can only recommend a hydrangea bush to anyone who wants to decorate the entrance to their home with something "flowery".
Hortensias are perennial and hardy. They keep for a very long time, especially in slightly cooler temperatures, and flower for many weeks. They are available in the colours light and dark pink, red, blue and white. It is best to place them in a beautiful planter and plant them in the garden when they have faded. This way, you can enjoy them for a long time to come.
But be careful: bought straight from the greenhouse, they need to be slowly acclimatised to the sun and cooler temperatures during the first few weeks. So don't place them in direct sunlight for the first week and protect them with a newspaper or fleece if temperatures below zero are expected.
Sow or plant flowers and vegetables directly outdoors
From April, many flowers and vegetables can be sown or planted directly outdoors. Here is a selection of them:
- Sunflowers
- Nasturtium
- All summer flowers - bulbs such as dahlias, lilies, etc.
- Broccoli and cauliflower
- Asparagus
- Rhubarb
But be careful - be sure to protect freshly planted plants from snails.
Have fun gardening! Let me know which strawberry is your favourite.
More for the gardener in you
You could use these products
Fertiliser
Quantity discount
CHF8.10 per piece for 3 units CHF8.10/1kg
Hauert Berries and fruit fertilizer
1 kg, 1 l
Seeds
Quantity discount
CHF1.75 per piece for 4 units
Samen Mauser Nasturtium simple mixture
Herb seeds
I discovered my love for gardening very early on and later turned my passion into my profession. For a few years now, I’ve been regularly writing blog posts and publishing articles in the HomeGardening section of myPfadFinder.com. This is where I give readers tips and tricks on gardens and balconies and present my latest gardening videos.
Find out more about me here: <a href="http://www.andreas-homegardening.com/" target="_blank">www.andreas-homegardening.com</a>