My husband and my son built me a raised bed for my last birthday. They hauled in the wood planks for the sides and the heavy compost to fill it once they finished assembling the raised bed.
I carefully planted strawberries along the front edge. Not too deep. Not too shallow. Close enough to the edge so at least half the fruit will hang over rather than touch the damp soil and spoil. Unfortunately, very few fruits stay to “hang” and ripen.
I did have flowers and green fruits, but I must have given the strawberries a fertiliser burn at one point. It seems that, in my eagerness to have the best strawberry bed, I accidentally added too much fertiliser and not enough water. And there had been very little rain. So I found the foliage burnt away. The hanging fruits remain a pipe dream.
I felt defeated for a while. A long while.
But I also noticed that other plants at the back of the bed were doing well. For many months, I had a constant supply of Swiss chard, red-veined sorrel, and rocket. Since the fertiliser burn seemed limited to the strawberries, perhaps not all is lost. Maybe this bed still has a second chance.
So I decided to do it again this year, and instead of heavy fertiliser, I will add some green helpers for the strawberries: companion plants.
There are four main ways companion planting can help your fruiting plants:
- attract the right pollinators
- add nutrition to the soil
- reduce evaporation
- discourage pests
Companion planting options for strawberries are plenty, but I reckon I will settle for the following because I already have these plants/seeds or planned to get them next year anyway:
- sweet alyssum, calendula, and phacelia: their flowers attract the right insects and add colours to the bed
- fava beans and white clover: these legumes add nitrogen to the soil
- lettuce and chards: their foliage creates shade, keeping moisture in the soil
- chives: their pungent smell discourages some pests
This is a companion planting schema for strawberries and other low growing herbaceous plants.
Alternatively, you can combine strawberries with tall raspberry canes like on this planting guide or trees (plum and peach).
I am getting rather excited about this “take 2” for the strawberry raised bed. Some of these plants grow in cooler months and can double as a ground cover, minimising bare soil. Others can be chopped up and used as living mulch to add nutrients to the soil. If I plan it right, I can (almost) close the loop for this bed and make it regenerative.
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