Strawberries!
I went out to the garden this morning and scrounged around in the wet, soggy strawberry patch until I found a handful of mostly okay strawberries. Between the roly polys enjoying the wet weather and munching on some of the berries and a number of berries that are bright red on one side but not on the other side, it was actually kind of challenging to find these 8 berries.
They certainly aren’t spectacular, and the flavor is nice, but nothing to write home about. I’m getting very close to writing a discussion of whether or not I would recommend this variety (‘Eversweet’) for planting. I’m tempted to just give you my complete analysis now, but in fairness to the variety, I want to give it another couple weeks of spring production.
Posted on May 17, 2010, in Around the Garden and tagged berries, fruit, harvest, strawberries. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
The Demo Garden Blog 
I picked about that many, but mine looked nicer and didn’t survive to be photographed. No roly polies (the ground is still covered with the cedar shavings I mulched them in this winter), but I think the sparrows sampled a couple, so I’ll put chicken wire over the box this evening.
Mine are Ozark Beauties, planted last summer. I probably should have pinched off the blossoms and let them fill in the box more, especially with the commercial berry crop this year, but I couldn’t wait.
Believe me, it was a challenge to preserve these to the photographing point! I’m interested to hear how you like your Ozark Beauties, because I don’t think we have any research on them, but the plants are being sold everywhere.
They’re pretty good, and when I poked around the plant box last night I realized there are runners every which where. Since they’re in only a 4×4 raised bed, I don’t think it’ll take them long to fill it, even letting them produce fruit. They’re sharing a box with the spring snap peas, but I’m betting by fall the peas will need a new home.
The berries so far aren’t terribly large, despite the “unusually large” declaration a lot of sellers have, though that may change as it gets into June. It’ll be interesting to see how prolific they stay after the June burst, too.
That’s always the catch with everbearing strawberries – how big are the fruit really and how prolific are they over the course of the year.