The Dollars and Cents of Growing your own Strawberries

Strawberries are one of the easiest plants to grow.  They are perennial and will produce year after year with a minimum of fuss.  Most important?  They are a huge money saver for a family....Did you know that  25 plants will produce over 30 pounds of strawberries a year ?   Do the math.  Three 6 packs of organic strawberries will cost about 2.50 -3.50/pack  and 30 pounds of strawberries at 3.00 a pound is over 90 dollars worth of fruit a year.   What is more important is it will be grown without the poisons and ground fumigants (including Bromide) or pesticides prevalent in store bought strawberries.

Growing Strawberries is one of the
best returns on your $$... plus no pesticides

How we grow them here...

•  We put down some torn up newspaper about 3 inches thick to stop weeds.
•  Open a bag of organic potting soil and lay it down at least 6 inches deep.  We use one bag for each 6 pack.  
•  Plant and cover with a good layer of mulch
•  Lay a drip line through the strawberries
•  In many zones you can plant them as a ground cover and get berries and  weed control

Tips...

Plant different varieties so you get strawberries at different times

Feel free to plant vertically.  Strawberries love to grow stacked in boxes up the side of a fence or in several food grade buckets stacked with holes in the sides to plant into.  (don't forget drain holes on the bottom)

Harvest in the early morning. Be sure to cut the stem not just pull the berry off.  We find you need to eat them pretty much the day you pick them when they are organic and we like them best NOT cooled.   Your choice.

You can dry them as strawberry chips.  Yum... or make simple stove top syrup or jelly.

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Follow the Castle Gardener.   Perfecting permaculture and organic practices that are NO WORK and can be done by a farm girl with painted nails..