Summertime is here and what could be better than strawberries and cream, the epitome of the British summer! Not only do they taste delicious but they are also great to have in your garden. The strawberry (Fragaria), is an incredibly easy plant to grow and it will soon be yielding its first sweet, succulent fruit of the season.
For this reason, our Garden Plant of the Month of Thejoyofplants.co.uk has to be the scrumptious strawberry, whose eye-catching fruit and sensational taste has also been linked to having great medicinal powers from as long ago as the Roman times.
Getting Started:
What could be more satisfying than picking strawberries fresh from you own garden? All that love and attention that has been lavished upon them makes the home-grown variety so much tastier than any strawberry bought from a shop! For a bumper harvest, why don’t you choose perpetual plants such as the ‘Ostara’, ‘Rapella’, ‘Selva’ and ‘Toscana’ that bear fruit all summer long?
Strawberries are not only easy to grow but they are also very versatile – they can be grown virtually anywhere, in borders, pots, even hanging baskets. Simply chose a bright, sunny spot, plant them 30 to 40 cm apart with the crown at soil level and water them regularly and well.
Why don’t you try planting your strawberries alongside some redcurrants, blackberries and raspberries to create your very own fruit salad, smoothies and jams straight from the garden!
Did you know?
- Around 28,000 kilograms of strawberries are consumed during Wimbledon, along with 7,000 litres of cream and 28,000 bottles of champagne!
- The acid in strawberries can actually help whiten your teeth – smile!
- The strawberry (as well as the raspberry) is actually a member of the rose family
- Strawberries contain more Vitamin C than an orange
- The delicious strawberry is actually very good for you – it can help reduce cholesterol and can even help fight cancers
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