16 
HO USE & GARDEN 
STRAWBERRIES, HOME GROWN 
A Berry Bed for the Garden—Preparation, Planting and Care That Bring Results— 
The Best Varieties to Grow 
ROBERT STELL 
P EPPERS, new peas, fresh egg plants—why not home 
grown strawberries as well? They will thrive in practi¬ 
cally any part of the United States, they are not over-particu¬ 
lar in the matter of soil, and they are hardy. And this is the 
time to start them. 
The strawberry is essentially a plant that asks a spot for its 
very own, and so it is usually grown in specially designated 
beds. The best soil for it is a dark, sandy loam, fairly damp 
but by no means mucky. Lacking this, strawberries will suc¬ 
ceed quite well in any soil that will grow good potatoes or corn. 
See that the bed is well drained and manured. If it lacks 
richness, manure in the proportion of one load to 1 /20 acre 
should be added and plowed or forked in. As a top dressing 
use a similar amount of well rotted manure, and harrow the 
whole surface thoroughly. 
The new strawberry bed is started with the runners from 
matured plants. If possible, secure runners which were sent 
out by their parent plants last fall, and after seeing that their 
roots are light in color, long and thrifty looking, clip off about 
1/3 of the root length and remove all the dead, withered leaves. 
Do not let the sun strike the roots at any time. 
The First Season 
Set the young plants 2! apart each way—a convenient 
way of determining their position is to mark the bed length¬ 
wise and across with 2' rows and set a plant at each inter¬ 
section of the lines. Open the soil with one hand enough to 
accommodate the roots in a vertical position, insert the plant 
and hold it with its crown just below the 
level of the surrounding surface while 
you firm down the soil around it. Do 
not, however, allow any earth to cover 
the crown. If the weather is warm and 
dry, a little water around each newly set 
plant will help matters. 
From now on, during this first season, 
hand cultivation will be the best way to 
check the weeds and keep the soil in con¬ 
dition. When the blossoms appear, nip 
off every one—the young plants must not 
be allowed to bear until next year, for all 
their energies now should be devoted to 
growth. 
Some time in July you will notice new 
runners developing on each plant. As 
soon as these are long enough, train them 
out from the parent like the spokes of a 
wheel, so that they will be equally distributed over the surface 
and their roots relieved of all crowding. A little earth sprinkled 
over these runners will keep them in position. 
By autumn the plants will be of good size and their runners 
well established. Keep them well weeded always, and when 
the ground has frozen cover them from sight with a mulch 
of meadow hay or good, weedless straw. This covering will 
serve as a protection against sudden changes in temperatuie, 
and should remain in the spring until all danger from freezing 
nights, with their resultant honey-combing and mounding of 
exposed ground, is past. 
Care of the Mature Plants 
When the spring has really opened up the mulch had best 
be removed entirely from the plants, lest it hinder their growth. 
Sometimes this is not done, on the theory that the straw keeps 
the fruit cleaner and free from the grit which otherwise might 
lodge on it during rainy weather. In the case of unthrifty, 
straggling plants this practice may be justified, but if the bed 
is as it should be it will be so leafy that each plant will act 
as the protector of its own fruit. There is no harm, however, 
in scattering a little of the cover mulch over bare, exposed 
places between the rows after the spring cultivation is over. 
When the mulch is off the bed, a top dressing of well rotted 
stable manure should be applied, in the same proportion as in 
the original preparation of the soil. Wood ashes are an ex¬ 
cellent, though often less easily obtained substitute, but they 
should be used cautiously because of their rather concentrated 
strength. Weeds, of course, must be 
guarded against. A conscientious! v 
wielded hoe is the best protection from 
them, but in using it be careful not to go 
deeper than />", else you may hurt 
the roots of the strawberries themselves. 
We come now to the blossoming and 
fruiting season, and consequently to your 
reward for all the watchful waiting your 
strawberry bed has so far entailed. As 
to the harvesting and use of the crop 
nothing need be said, for the person who 
does not know. how to pick and eat a 
strawberry would scarcely have reached 
this point in the story. A few words re¬ 
garding the future, however, may not be 
out of place: 
The first and second crops from a 
(Continued on page 54) 
Pots may be used to bold the new runners, 
where they quickly develop into thriving stock 
Meadow hay or good, weedless straw makes 
the best winter mulch to guard against frost 
The properly heme grown strawberry is far 
better for table use than the fruit-store brand 
