🌱Doc's Pantry Garden Almanac

The Garden Almanac

Runners that carpet a bed in a single season

🧺 Doc's Pantry·℞ Apothecary· 🌱 Garden·🎨 Artisan Hub
← Fruit & Berries 🫐 Fruit & Berries

Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa)

Runners that carpet a bed in a single season

🔍 How to identify it

Low plant with three toothed leaflets; white 5-petal flowers; red berries dotted with seeds (achenes) on the surface; spreads by above-ground runners (stolons).

👀 Look-alikes

Mock strawberry (Potentilla/Duchesnea) has YELLOW flowers and tasteless red fruit — harmless but not worth eating. True strawberry has white flowers.

🤝 Companion planting

Plant near:
Thymebeanlettucespinach
Keep apart:
cabbagekale
FamilyRosaceae (rose family)
Hardiness zone3-10 (choose hardy June-bearers for prairie)
SunFull sun
WaterEven, ~25 mm/week
SoilRich, well-drained, slightly acidic
Spacing30-45 cm; let runners fill in
Sowing / startingPlant crowns with the crown at soil level; mulch with straw over winter
HarvestJune-bearers flush in early summer; everbearers dribble all season
Common pestsSlugs, birds (net), grey mould in wet weather.

🧺 What it's good for

Fresh, jam, freezing. Ground-cover that suppresses weeds. Straw mulch keeps fruit clean.
← more fruit & berries

Plant identification here is educational — never eat, forage, or medicate with a wild plant on the basis of a website alone. Many edible plants have toxic look-alikes. When in doubt, grow from known seed, or confirm with an expert before you harvest.