I'm a novice when it comes to gardening. Usually does the growing around here, but while he's gone I guess it's a good time to learn a new skill.
So, I started reading about how strawberries grow and learned that the things I thought were vines hanging out of the raised garden bed were in fact, called runners. And these runners are looking to root in any soil it can find. Which means by next year, we'll have strawberries growing outside the bed in the grass if we let them root. Not ideal.
Here's a runner that's already trying to root.
I grabbed some big potting containers we had and got to work. The internet told me all I needed to do was stake the root into some soil and make sure the leaves were up. Also to clip any extra runners that might have offshooted to concentrate the grow into the bigger plant.
I used straws since that's all I had on hand, but it worked out ok. Here's the result...
There's going to be quite a few plants if most of them take. I'll be giving some away to friends for sure. I just couldn't bear the thought of cutting down the runners. That's free food! 😍
Once the runners take root they're supposed to wither from the umbilical in the garden bed by themselves. How cool is that? Then I just move or replant them elsewhere.
Next, I noticed that the neighbors have some raspberries growing along their fence. They have spilled over into our yard. Yay!!!
The lot that the berries are rooted in is empty. But I'm sure they'll be building on it soon. So, just in case, I looked up how to take a clipping from it and grow it where i want. It was surprisingly easy. Hopefully it works. I literally had no idea if I was doing it right. Time shall tell. 😁
We also benefit from our neighbors apple tree. It hangs over the fence and its massive! I won't try my hand at growing trees just yet, this one isn't going anywhere any time soon!
I hope my efforts work and I get some more berries! This was actually really fun and now I want to do more!!! 🤣
Happy gardening everyone! Hope your weekend is going well. Love and light!