Refreshing strawberry beds
My first strawberry raised bed is now 3 years old. Runners have filled in the gaps between plants, and are overflowing the bed into the list aen. It's time to convert this bed to something else and establish a new strawberry bed elsewhere.
Strawberry jam is a staple of my fruit canning, so this crop is important to keep going as a perennial. Our poor apple crop this year made the strawberries doubly important.
I dug up a mix of young runners with minimal roots and larger, older clumps of plants with very well established roots. Both were producing fresh young pale green leaves, and the established clumps were sending out runners, which I removed.
All were transplanted to a new bed on a cloudy day and watered twice.
They have not yet recovered, and the leaves are still droopy, but I think most will survive. Given supply challenges, I'd prefer to reuse existing strawberries to start a new bed instead of buying more. The old bed is still jammed with strawberry plants even after digging up enough to start the new bed!
Once fall comes and the leaves die back, I'll cut the remaining leaves off and compost them, leaving the roots to grow new leaves in spring.
Any suggestions are welcome.
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