Terry Coombs wrote:
....
On another berry important subject , I found what I think are wild
strawberries while cleaning up some of the canes I pruned . Cleared the
fround around them a bit and marked the location , if these are in fact
strwaberries I'll clean up more and encourage them . IMO fresh berries
your pick ... with a little sugar and milk or cream is the next best thing
to sex .

they're very nice plants to let wander around
a marginal sandy slope or other limited area,
but they can become invasive, harbor diseases not
well tolerated by their more settled kin and the
berries are smaller (but compared to some of those
kin in terms of flavor they are much better).

if the soil is fertile and gets more moisture
then it's pretty likely they'll get over grown
by weeds if you don't keep the weeds trimmed
somehow. a string trimmer or hedge trimmer used
high, or even the mower set high might be ok.

we have some wandering around here and i love
picking them when they are ripe. they bloom a
little before the earliest of my other strawberry
plants -- they are also ripe a little sooner.
i keep them away from the other strawberry patches.
i wouldn't mind a more disease tolerant plant in
my other regular strawberry patches, but i'm also
quite happy with the flavor and size of the
berries i already have. no need to confuse
matters further when thinning or weeding.

good luck with the blackberries and strawberries.


songbird