On Tue, 16 Mar 2004 21:24:07 GMT, Dawn
wrote:

Hi all,

I was looking over the back yard garden in anticipation of starting my
spring cleaning and planting and I noticed that the strawberries I put
in last year survived the winter. They seem to have put out suckers and
spread around the patch quite a bit and at the moment they are looking
pretty good.

MY MO for the garden the last couple years has been to go out in the
early spring and widen the plot by a couple feet, turn all the soil
over, dig up any weeds that have started, and mix in a bag of manure, or
last year's compost, or something to amend the soil as it is primarily
clay here and there's never been a garden in this yard before.

Except this year I'd really like to keep the strawberries. Do you think
it is a good idea to try transplanting them? Could I dig them up, do my
thing with the garden and plant them back on the same day? How far down
do strawberry roots go? I'm really afraid of killing them by digging up
the garden for the rest of my planting, since my experience with
gardening seems to run toward watching things die.

I'm trying to figure out why the strawberries survived but the mint
didn't.

Dawn
Missouri Zone 5b

What kind of mint was that? Some mints are hardy, some aren't. Like
Corsican mint isn't hardy, can't recall off the top of my head others,
but are you *sure* it's dead? The tops die down, but they come up
from the roots again if hardy.

You can move strawberries, it might set them back as far as producing
this season, might not, depends on how big they are, what kind they
are, and how much dirt you leave with them. The main thing is, take
careful note of where the crown is - where the leaves end and the
roots begin. Strawberries are particular about the crown being at
ground level, not higher or lower, so take a good look at them before
you move them. They like sunshine too, if they get too little, they
will grow, but won't bear fruit.

Janice