SouthwestBlend.com guide to growing strawberries in the Southwest USA.

Strawberries For Your Garden

Home-grown, vine-ripened strawberries are among the garden's supreme treats- sweet, succulent, and bursting with flavor. Serve them in shortcakes, blended into smoothies, on ice cream, in cheesecakes or crepes, topped with yogurt or whipped cream, or simply savor them "as is" fresh from the garden. Grocery store strawberries, which are harvested early and ripened off the vine, can't begin to compare in sweetness and flavor.

  Strawberries are also easy to grow in the home garden. The plants form foot-wide mounds of lush dark green foliage that can serve as an attractive ground cover. They require no staking or training, as do the larger berries, and only basic care. Once planted they will spread and continue to produce for four or five years before they need to be replaced.

  Strawberry plants also grow well in pots, patio planters, even in hanging planters. While there are many varieties of strawberries, there are basically only two types: June-bearing (Allstar) and Everbearing (Ozark and Quinalt). The June-bearing strawberries bloom in the spring and produce a plentiful crop that ripens during June. The Everbearing strawberries produce both a spring and a fall crop, and continue producing some berries throughout the summer, more when temperatures aren't too hot. For the home gardener, the best strategy is to plant both types and harvest ripe berries over a long season.
 
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Description: Ozark everbearing strawberry is an excellent variety for canning. Large, sweet fruit. Ideal for the home gardener.
Common Name: Strawberry Plants
Botanical Name: Fragaria Species
Color: White
Foliage Color: Green
Bloom Time: Summer
Product Ships Between: 2/13/2006 and 5/2/2006
Height: 12-18 inches tall
Bulb Size: #1 Division
Sun Requirements: Full Sun
Hardiness Zones: 3,4,5,6,7,8

Tips for growing strawberries:    Plant your strawberries as soon as they are available, the longer the growing time, the better. The soil needs to drain well, and roots need to get fairly dry before each watering, even though they like moist soil. Do not plant with Cauliflower, Mint, Rosemary, or Thyme. Strawberries will die if planted close to Gladioli. Do plant by beans, borage, lavender, lettuce, marigolds, onions, spinach and tansy. Beans can give afternoon shade to strawberries which is ideal in the hotter climates and desert areas. Add a mulch of pine needles to add nutrients to the soil. Strawberries are one of the few plants that love to be under pine trees, the needles conserve moisture in the summer and give warmth in the winter. If the leaves turn light green, fade to yellow and turn white, you are either watering too much or you do not have enough drainage. They make great container or windowbox plants.