Alpine strawberries

They're growing so fast! Monarda, echinacea, moss rose, and marigolds around them.

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Comment by Catherine, The Herb Lady on April 3, 2013 at 10:03am: Laying the fruit on the stone or brick as you mentioned also keeps them away from the sow bugs - mostly.

Comment by Catherine, The Herb Lady on April 3, 2013 at 10:02am: Careful with those pots - as wonderful looking as they are the exterior can heat up substantially during the warm time of year - even it the winter I was surprised when we were discussing heat on pots last year here on the VPA and on an 85 degree day the exterior of one of my pots registered 104 degrees when I checked temperatures.

Comment by grrlscout on April 3, 2013 at 9:57am: Hmm... I also scored a small, glazed strawberry pot from the foreclosure home. I think I may try and convert it to a self-waterer, and put some of the smaller plants in there (maybe the alpines too) to see how they do.

Comment by Catherine, The Herb Lady on April 3, 2013 at 9:17am: It probably is the pill bugs doing the munching. Outside of putting paper plates under the fruit or a paper collar to hold them up off the ground there is not a lot you can do about them. We have tons of pill bugs because we mulch a lot and they love the cool/damp ground. We have been talking about getting chickens for eggs but I said to Deane the other day that it would be worth the cost alone if the hens would keep the sow bugs under control.

Comment by grrlscout on April 3, 2013 at 9:08am: I meant to say that this is happening with my regular strawberries, which I think are Sequoias

Comment by grrlscout on April 3, 2013 at 9:07am: Yes! Those look so good! I'm just about to put the alpines in the ground.

On a related note, do you have an advice on keeping bugs from eating them? Something has been burrowing inside the fruit. I suspect cutworms and pillbugs.

I spread DE around, and raked away the leaf mulch I had. I put the fruit atop flat rocks. I was thinking of making paper plate collars to go around the plants next.

Comment by Catherine, The Herb Lady on April 3, 2013 at 8:57am: Grrlscout - to give you encouragement - I just harvested some white and red this morning.