Strawberry
Fragaria × ananassa
Sprawling ground fruit — borage at its side strengthens the crop.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 13.8 in
- In-row spacing
- 11.8 in
- Between rows
- 17.7 in
- Square-foot density
- 1 per square
Calendar (from your frost dates)
- Plant out
- at the last spring frost
- First harvest
- 60 days after the last spring frost
- Harvest ends
- 30 days before the first fall frost
Growing
- Type
- Fruit · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Watering
- Moderate
- Soil
- Rich, well-drained
- Feeding
- A balanced feed in spring, moving to something potassium-rich once fruiting starts.
- USDA zones
- 4a–9b
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- April
Through the year
- Apr–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–May Flowering
- May–Jun Fruit Set
- Jun–Sep Harvest
- Sep–Oct Growing
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Apr Leaf Fall
Harvest
- When
- Late spring through midsummer for June-bearers (about 4 weeks of cropping); everbearers and day-neutrals fruit in flushes from early summer to first frost. Plants crop the year after planting (day-neutrals the same year).
- What to look for
- Fully red from tip to shoulder with no white or green at the stalk end — strawberries do not ripen further once picked. Glossy skin, sweet aroma, and the berry gives slightly to a gentle squeeze.
- How to harvest
- Pinch or snip the stalk about 1cm above the berry rather than tugging the fruit itself, keeping the green calyx on. Handle by the stem to avoid bruising; pick in the cool of morning once dew has dried.
- How often
- Every 1–2 days at peak — ripe berries spoil fast on the plant and draw slugs and botrytis. Remove any moldy fruit as you go.
- Storing the crop
- Eat within 1–2 days; refrigerate unwashed in a single layer and wash only just before eating. They freeze well hulled on a tray then bagged (texture softens — best for jam, sauces, smoothies). Excellent for jam.
Companions
Borage, Lettuce, Spinach, Thyme
Pests & problems
- Vine weevil Adults notch leaf edges at night; their plump C-shaped grubs devour roots, especially in containers. Hand-pick adults after dark and water in biological nematodes in late summer.
- Slugs & snails Slugs
- Birds Pigeons strip brassica leaves; other birds take fruit, buds, and seedlings. Netting fixed taut over hoops is the only reliable protection.
- Gray mold (botrytis) Botrytis (gray mold)
- Powdery mildew A white dusty coating over leaves and shoots when roots are dry but the air is humid. Keep plants watered and mulched, prune for airflow, and remove the worst leaves.
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.
Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.
- Frogs & toads Anura
A resident toad works the beds every night for slugs, cutworms, and weevils. Recruit them with water — even a sunken basin pond — plus damp shade and an upturned-pot toad house; skip the slug pellets that poison their prey.
- Ground beetle Carabidae
Fast, glossy night hunters that patrol the soil surface for slugs, cutworms, and root-fly larvae. Give them daytime cover — thick perennial edges, stepping stones, a log — and skip the tillage that wrecks their burrows.
- Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus
A European animal, and worth saying so plainly: there are no hedgehogs in North America, and the ally that does the same night shift here is the toad, the opossum or the ground beetle. Where they do occur, cut a gap in the fence and skip the pellets.
- Centipedes ChilopodaHunts Slugs & snails
Flat, fast, one pair of legs to a segment — and a predator, unlike the slow round millipede it is constantly confused with. It hunts slugs, cutworms, springtails and woodlice by night under mulch and stones. Learn the difference and leave this one alone.
- Garden birds PasseriformesHunts Slugs & snails
Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.
- Rove beetle StaphylinidaeHunts Slugs & snails
Slim, quick beetles with short wing cases that hunt in soil and litter, taking root-fly eggs and larvae, fungus-gnat larvae, and mites. Mulch and undisturbed ground keep them resident year-round.
- Salamanders & newts CaudataHunts Slugs & snails
Damp-loving hunters of slugs, worms, woodlice and beetle larvae that spend the day under a log or a stone and work the beds at night. Companions to the toads: they want the same damp shade, the same log pile, and the same absence of slug pellets.
- Snakes & lizards Colubridae & PhrynosomatidaeHunts Slugs & snails
A garter snake works the beds for slugs and voles and a fence lizard clears grasshoppers off a sunny wall. Almost every snake a gardener meets is harmless and useful; give them a log pile, a warm flat stone and a bit of cover and they stay.
Companion planting
Good neighbors
- Borage Draws pollinators, Repels pests
- Lettuce Living mulch
- Spinach Living mulch
- Thyme Repels pests, Living mulch
- Shallot Repels pests
- Sorrel Repels pests
- Corn salad Living mulch
- Garlic
Keep apart
- Cabbage Brassicas and strawberries compete and share pests.
- Broccoli Brassicas suppress strawberry vigour.
- Kale Brassicas and strawberries make poor neighbours.
- Kohlrabi Brassicas and strawberries make poor neighbours.
- Bok choy Brassicas and strawberries compete and share pests.
- Collards Brassicas and strawberries compete and share pests.
Did you know?
Strawberries wear their seeds on the outside — about 200 per berry — and aren't true botanical berries.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com