songbird wrote:
Tony wrote:
...
Ok, but back to the OP, anyone use wild strawberries as a ground
cover?

well, i tried in one area, we had a rather
large area devoted to hollyhocks.

in that same area i planted some creeping
jenny which has almost covered that large
area (growing in pretty much solid clay). most
of it is getting dug up and turned in now as we
are reshaping/rethinking that area.

the past few years i've let the wild strawberries
run over the creeping jenny and stopped fighting
the clover that was invading and just enjoyed the
phlox i had planted along the back (north edge)
of the honey suckles...

a few days ago they got mowed down (by the
management ) along with a lot of my phlox i
had worked so hard to get going in there...

so far the wild strawberries are coming back
just fine... so i expect they'll be ok eventually.
i imagine the phlox will recover too. the
goldfinches love the seeds on those phlox
when they get fat.

another area (sunny, west facing slope,
sand even!) has a small garden and i asked
the management to leave them alone there
to see if i could get some berries. i had a
few this year from them. i was hoping to
get more from the other patch, but they were
mowerly challenged...

i wouldn't consider it a primary ground
cover, but if you think in terms of layers
and companion planting it does have nice
red leaves when they fade. just plan on
runners everywhere unless you go for
some alpine version...

This sounds right to me. I haven't seen wild strawberry anywhere as a
dense cover. It's loose and holey. It grows in poor conditions but is
easily out competed.

Let it fill it's nooks, but look for supplements.

Jeff




songbird