Happy Urban Dirt

Garden strawberries are great both as a ground cover plant and for growing delicious fruit. Their miniature stature helps suppress weeds and retain moisture in the soil, making them an ideal choice for borders and garden beds.

If you’re planning a forest garden or just looking for a groundcover, strawberries are a great choice!

Below is an excerpt A forest garden on a home scale By Dani Baker. It has been adapted for employ on the Internet.

Growing garden strawberries: ground cover

The basic principle of perennial gardening is to keep the soil covered with something, preferably something living, everywhere and at all times. Ground cover helps modulate soil temperature, absorb and retain moisture, and nurture soil life.

Many of the plants described in this chapter can perform these functions admirably while providing nutritious nutrients, attracting beneficial insects, and improving the aesthetics of the landscape.

As you learn about my experiences with each of them, I become more confident you will find those that suit your garden vision and habitats.

I really like strawberries as ground cover plants, especially the ever-bearing ones. These low-growing plants bloom and bear fruit throughout the growing season, starting in June.

Some produce berries in huge quantities, while others provide a delightful snack as I wander around the garden.

Garden Strawberries (Fragaria x pineapple)

Native Range: Temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere GC
Height: 6 to 10 inches (15–25 cm)
Proliferation: Varies depending on type
Soil conditions: Soggy but well-drained soil. Sunlight: Prefers full sun
USDA hardiness zones: From 3 to 9, depending on the type

The huge pink flowers of the day-neutral Gasana F1 strawberry decorate the ground cover.

Strawberries can fill a number of groundcover niches in a forest garden. There are two types of garden strawberry plants: June bearers and day neutrals (also called everbearers).

June bearers bear fruit only in tardy spring; They bloom and bear fruit throughout the entire growing season, starting in June. Commercially grown strawberries have a two-year lifespan.

They lasted much longer in my garden, with their production waxing and waning over the years.

Whether they produce a bulky crop or just a few berries, they usually provide a decent ground cover that protects the soil and deters weeds.

Strawberries also have two different growth habits: running and clumping.

Branching plants spread through horizontal stems or stolons protruding above the ground and periodically send out roots, creating recent seedlings.

Clumps form a mound as they spread slowly outwards from the center, producing very few or no stolons.

In addition to wonderful fruit, strawberry flowers are edible and make a stunning decoration or ingredient in salads. The leaves can also be used to flavor teas and medicines.

Here are some varieties of garden strawberries that I particularly like.

Gasana F1

This compact, day-neutral strawberry has showy, delicate pink flowers and huge, tasty berries.

I grew this variety from seed and when the teenage plants were ready to be transplanted, I planted them as a border next to the limestone driveway that runs through part of my garden.

In this sunlit spot, the additional heat radiating from the seed helps them bloom and bear fruit from early June to tardy November.

Mara des Bois strawberries spread as shoots take root in the cracks between patio stones.

Mara of the Forest

This day neutral strawberry was developed by a breeder in France. It has white flowers and tiny to medium-sized, aromatic and aromatic fruits.

It spreads by stolons, so it provides decent soil cover if placed in plenty of delicate and evenly saturated soil.

I planted this variety in a sunlit place where soil moisture changes naturally with rainfall.

When it rains regularly, the plants bloom and produce juicy berries from mid-June until November!

They go dormant during drought, then come to life and bloom again with rain.

To beat the competition (birds, snails and squirrels) in the harvest, I often pick the berries before they turn completely red, but after they have developed their intense smell and taste.

For several years I have been placing nets over my plants to protect them from the critters, but I have found that despite my efforts, clever squirrels figure out how to crawl under the nets.

At the beginning and end of the season, I cover these strawberries with a floating row cover to protect the flowers from frost.

If frostbite occurs, the yellow centers of the flowers turn black and do not produce fruit. Strawberry plants also benefit from a winter blanket of leaves applied when the ground begins to freeze, usually in December.

As your garden grows, layers of deciduous plants will lay down this mulch for you when their leaves fall in the fall.

June pine harvest.

Pine

A June variety, its unusual berries are white with tiny red seeds and taste like pineapple.

Perfectly ripe aromatic pine fruits turn pale pink and are best eaten immediately.

These berries are so perishable that once, when I tried to make jam with them, they dissolved into a bulky syrup.

It may be possible to preserve pine trees by freezing them, although I haven’t tried this method.

Pine trees may stop producing tasty fruit after three or four years, but they persist as a dense ground cover.

These hardy plants often stay green all winter under the snow and resume growth in early spring.

Tarpan F1

This attractive, day-neutral strawberry has deep pink flowers and tasty tiny to medium sized fruit. It spreads slowly through stolons.

My Tarpan grows well as a groundcover under honeyberries.

I also recently planted Tarpan with Gasana, expecting that this combination of clumping and flowing strawberries would provide stunning contrasting flowers and a suitable ground cover for many years.

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