We picked the first strawberries of the season yesterday. They were the warm, sweet berries that make all of the work preparing the bed and babying them worthwhile.

I’ve had a tough time growing strawberries around here because our ground is naturally heavy clay, and even with amendments I couldn’t seem to give them a happy place to grow. So this year I built a 4×8 square foot garden bed and filled it with a mix of compost, vermiculite and peat moss. They are much happier.

Now if I was the best strawberry grower, I would have removed all of the blossoms to allow the plants to grow strong instead of produce fruit. But I couldn’t do it when I saw the pretty white blossoms. There’s no arguing that I’m an impatient gardener more than anything.

Birds in the Strawberries

So we have delightful, delicious strawberries, and I’m doing my darndest to keep the birds from eating them. At the end of last week some of the bigger berries were just turning red, and I was stupid enough to think they’d stay that way. In a blink, the robins got them and ate parts out of the best ones.

That’s when the floating row cover went back over them. I had it over this spring to protect them from the torrential downpours and cold temperatures, as well as to discourage the deer passing through the yard since they seemed to have a propensity for munching practically anything. They haven’t been around for quite some time so I thought the berries were safe. Not as such.

I used the lightweight floating row cover to allow the maximum amount of sunlight to go through, but I still need to remove it to water properly. Ive used the bird netting in past years, but I always seem to be tangled in it before I know it. And with the boys, I can guarantee a spider would wrap them up in a cocoon! I’ll probably leave the floating row cover in place until the end of the season to prevent deer from pulling out plants or pruning them.

Slugs

A big problem a lot of people have with strawberries are slugs. It’s a really good idea to mulch underneath them with straw so the berries don’t touch the ground, but it often results in inviting the slugs and snails that like the damp and cool conditions.

Slug bait will usually do the trick, but you can also use diatomaceous earth to wreak havoc on their tender, slimy skin. Diatomaceous earth is the microscopic fossilized remains of aquatic plants. The sharp edges cut the slugs and cause them to dry out.

For a more festive demise, baiting them with beer poured into a shallow dish or bowl also brings them in for a final belly up to the bar. Empty the gruesome scene every morning and refresh the beer to keep them coming in for their last sip.

I’m pretty confident that I have the strawberry bed secured from wild animals. The birds cant get to them. The deer shouldn’t bother them, and we haven’t had issues with slugs. I still have something picking them before they’re perfect, and I think I have a pretty good idea who it is: Sam and John the strawberry bandits. I’ll share how to keep them out of the berries once I figure it out!