Plant now and save later

It’s the middle of winter and summer couldn’t feel any further away. If you’re tired of paying marked-up prices for fruit every Christmas, now is the time to get planting.

Whether your garden is big or small, inner city or the back of beyond, you will have no problem growing strawberries. They will grow just about anywhere from raised gardens and pots to window boxes and hanging baskets – just as long as they have some sun!

And if you have children, get them involved! It’s a great way to keep your kids active … and I promise, if they’re anything like my kids, they’ll love eating the results!

So let’s get started. Grab some of Awapuni Nurseries’ Traditional Value strawberry seedlings when you’re down at your local supermarket, Warehouse or Bunnings store. Each bundle has around four plants which should produce between 60 -100 strawberries come Christmas.

Alternatively, if you grew strawberries last winter you can re-plant this year. Start by pruning the plants right back and gently pulling them out of the ground. Split the strawberries in to small sections and keep only the closest runner to the main plant (additional runners tend not to fruit so well).

As I said earlier, strawberries thrive in the warmth so make sure you choose an area that gets as much of the sun’s rays as possible. And for the juiciest results, ensure the soil in your garden or container is well drained and has good depth.

If you’re going to plant in a garden, raise the bed by mounding the soil. Mounding the soil encourages air circulation, drainage and can give shallow soil added depth. Mix together compost and a fertiliser such as Nitrophoska Blue to stimulate growth and large, juicy fruit.

Don’t have a garden? Just use any type of container. The benefit of planting in a container is the strawberries won’t touch the ground and rot. You could even get creative and nail some old drain pipes to a fence!

When planting in containers or pots use a top quality potting mix and for an extra boost to your strawberries, add some liquid fertiliser.

Plant your strawberries around the edge of your raised garden or pots, just to the crown, and surround with pea straw to help keep away weeds. Planting around the edges encourages the fruit to hang over the sides and prevents rot.

Once your seedlings begin to fruit cover them with netting to stop birds from stealing the berries and attacking all of your hard work.

Come December your house and garden will overflow with ripe and delicious strawberries. Closer to the time, we will remind you to pick your strawberries and also provide some tasty tips on what you can do with them. So this year, after Christmas dinner why not tuck in to the strawberries you grew from start to finish. Fruit tastes so much better when it’s homegrown!

Visit www.awapuni.co.nz for more of Tod’s great tips or for more information contact Henri Ham at Awapuni Nurseries (06) 354-8828.