On 6/8/2014 11:38 AM, Ecnerwal wrote:
In article ,
songbird wrote:

Ecnerwal wrote:
...
Strawberries took a major hit either from the winter or from the
side-effects of the winter (I don't know if they were killed or eaten,
that is.)

what type of soil are they in? i've
not had problems here and we have had
mixed weather the past few winters to
show that strawberries are pretty hardy
when it comes to cold. most of the
trouble i've heard with them dying off
is when they are in fairly sandy soil
without much mulch or cover for the
winter. then they can get frost heaved
and dried out.

Normally they laugh off the winters, frequently having green foliage
throughout, so this was a surprising departure from the norm. They are
in horse manure (to be picky, composted HM - essentially anything
resembling dirt in my garden is composted HM from 1-20 years old with a
bit of other compost making up an insignificant proportion, and "soil"
being essentially non-existent) - on top of clay - dig a few feet down
and you can make pots out of it. Mulched with lots of pine needles. I
think I have 4 out of 9 in one patch, of which one is somewhat normal
and the rest have obviously suffered, and 1 out of 15 in the other.

Heh! We live in Harris Cty, TX, there's five feet of Houston gumbo under
this house with about two inches of sand on top. We actually found some
white clay while digging a hole to plant the Meiwa kumquat. Wife is an
artist and kept it in case I ever set up her kiln again.