Strawberries are the first berries of the year. Drenched by cream and sugar, shop-bought ones can ‘pass muster’ but there’s nothing like growing your own.
And I do mean ‘nothing’ as we are not the only creatures on this Earth who count down the days for the strawberry to be fat and sweet!
Last year I tried laying pine needles as a replacement for straw, having read the smell repels some hungry insects .
‘Nope’, laughed the slugs and strawberry eaters, ‘You’ll have to try harder than that .’ Well I could stick some slug killer down but then I would end up killing hedgehogs and basically ruining the eco system which I try to nurture.
People tell me: ‘grow more, grow enough for yourself and the bugs’ but I only have a small garden. Strawberries do spread if left to their own devices so there is hope in the future, I don’t mind if the beauties are happy to snatch a space under the fig tree or squeeze into the herb garden. But for now I want to make sure I have at least some home grown for munching while watching Wimbledon. To that end I planted up a strawberry pot and put it very close to the back door to discourage birds.
After the time of strawberries I intend to replant the pot with succulents.
Lastly, there is a beautiful chapter on strawberries in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass.

by Jo Green, a former allotmenteer, forager, amateur herbalist, pickler and jam maker who squeezed her allotment greenery
into her tiny
garden