Garden strawberries in garden design – both beautiful and tasty

Most of us perceive garden strawberries as an exclusively berry crop. We grow them in beds for the sake of a tasty harvest. But in fact, strawberries are not only berries, but also beautiful blossoms and decorative leaves. Especially when it comes to runnerless varieties and varieties with an unusual petal color (pink). It is for this reason that this crop can be considered not only as an exclusively garden plant, but also as a garden decoration. In this article, I will talk about the designer’s approach to strawberries and some of its decorative varieties.

Garden strawberries in garden design - both beautiful and tasty
Garden strawberries in garden design – both beautiful and tasty

Strawberry Border

One of the simplest and most elegant garden decorations is a border. It effectively emphasizes the shape of a flowerbed, beautifully frames a lawn, and adds mystery to a winding path. And most often, as border plants, we choose well-known unpretentious perennials – carnations, hostas, lavender, heuchera, chrysanthemums – or elegant annuals – marigolds, low-growing zinnias, petunias. But for some reason, we do not include small-fruited varieties of garden strawberries in this category. And in vain!

Strawberry beznasaya is characterized by active growth of green mass, which is necessary for a border plant to quickly master the allocated territory. It has a neat compact bush, reaching 30-35 cm in diameter. It practically does not get sick. And most importantly, it blooms continuously, all summer, over time becoming covered not only with cute snow-white spots of delicate flowers, but also with bright specks of red berries.

These varieties do not require special care. Only proper planting and periodic watering. And for such a small attention, strawberry bushes pay with both decorativeness and a sweet harvest. At the same time, the choice of varieties is wide. However, as a decorative decoration of the garden, it is better to prefer those with red berries – “Regina”, Alexandria, “Ruyana”, “Baron Solemacher”, “Ali Baba” and more.

The width of a strawberry border planted in one row should be 35–40 cm. The distance between plants is 25–30 cm. The diameter of a small-fruited strawberry bush reaches 30–35 cm, so already in the year of planting the plants will close beautifully and give a dense green frame to the selected area. Such planting will serve as a decoration for up to 3 years, after which it will need to be updated, as it will begin to age and lose its “elegance”.

A strawberry border can highlight not only a path, a mixborder or a flowerbed. Strawberry without runners feels good in a little shade, so it can be used to frame the trunk area of ​​trees. In this version, it looks no less original and even partly fabulous, which makes the garden memorable.

Strawberry Border
Strawberry border. © CozyBlog

Strawberry meadow

For a garden in a natural style, garden strawberries, and not only small-fruited beardless ones, but also common ones, can also become one of the intriguingly interesting solutions. Planted in a clearing in the transition zone from the lawn to the trees, it will invariably attract attention with both the texture of the leaf and the delicate flowering. And if you choose a remontant variety with aromatic berries for planting (for example, “Mira Mira”), then you can wrap the garden in an intoxicating strawberry aroma twice a year.

Of course, such a plantation will not produce large berries, since the carpet method of growing strawberries determines the tendency to form smaller berries due to a decrease in the feeding area per plant. But in terms of design, this is not the first task. And the harvest from such a plantation will be sufficient, just from smaller berries.

Strawberries on a rock garden

Garden strawberries look very attractive among stones. For this reason, they are quite justifiably used in the design of rock gardens and alpine hills. Only in this case, not white-flowered varieties are used more often (although strawberries with ordinary white flowers look great in this solution), but pink ones. And there is a fairly large selection of them today. At the same time, they also bear fruit well, are often highly resistant to adverse conditions and are distinguished by their remontance.

Among the pink-flowered varieties and hybrids of garden strawberries for use in rock gardens, the following can be distinguished:

  • strawberry “F1’s Worldwide Debut” has a low bush, delicate pink blossoms on high peduncles and light red berries. And, importantly, weak runner formation.
  • “Tristan F1” (Tristan F1) has a compact bush and dark pink flowers. Forms elongated sweet berries and almost does not form runners.
  • “Pink Panda” (Pink panda) has a low (15 cm) but wide (up to 60 cm) bush. Continuous soft pink flowering. Forms a small, tasteless berry. Characterized by high drought resistance. It is the result of crossing garden strawberry and marsh cinquefoil.
  • “Pink Miracle” (Pink Spirit) has a tall (50 cm) compact bush. Early delicate pink flowering. Forms fragrant large sweet berries.
  • “Merlan F1” (Whiting F1) — pa non-montant variety. Forms a spreading bush. It is distinguished by its delicate pink blossoms. It produces small, very sweet berries. It practically does not form runners.

Yes, an alpine slide with strawberry patches will have to be watered more often, and you will have to make sure that the strawberries do not crowd out its other inhabitants, but “beauty requires sacrifice” and they are worth it!

Growing strawberries for ornamental purposes will not yield many berries, but in this case the berries are not the main thing
Growing strawberries for ornamental purposes will not yield many berries, but in this case, the berries are not the main thing. © Tatyana Mozzhukhina

Spectacular strawberry planter

A striking garden decoration is a spectacular flowerpot or hanging basket. Usually, beautifully flowering ampelous plants are used for them. However, garden strawberries are also included in the list of possible options. Varieties with continuous or repeated flowering can become both a decoration and a delicacy. And what’s even better is that remontant strawberry bushes planted in flowerpots or hanging baskets can be brought into the house to a southern or southeastern window with the onset of cold days and continue to enjoy the sweet berry for some time.

The choice of varieties and hybrids suitable for growing in pots is quite large and can include both small-fruited, runnerless varieties and ordinary remontant ones (Capri, “Cabrillo”, “Charlotte”, “Moscow delicacy”, “Everly”, “Temptation F1” etc.), ampelous (“Elan F1”, “Garland”), or pink-flowered, the main thing is that the flowering of the selected plant is not one-time.

When planting strawberries in a pot, the container should be at least 3 liters per bush. In balcony boxes, it is better to place plants at a distance of 25 cm from each other. The soil can be universal or prepared independently from a mixture of spruce soil, humus and sand (the soil should be loose). After planting, the plants need to be regularly watered and fertilized.

Strawberry planter
Strawberry flowerpot. © flo.discus-club

Examples of pink-flowering varieties and hybrids suitable for growing in containers, hanging pots and balcony boxes:

  • “Gazana F1” (Gasana F1) – remontant hybrid, forms long recumbent peduncles. It is distinguished by rich pink flowering. It produces tasty aromatic berries.
  • «Tuscany F1» (Tuscany F1) — rmontant hybrid, fforms a powerful, but compact bush, about 30 cm in diameter. Blooms with ruby ​​flowers. Forms large, sweet, very aromatic berries. Produces a large number of runners.
  • “Pink Flamingo” (Pink Flamingos) — remontant variety, forms a small spreading bush. Very long tendrils. Large, deep pink flowers. Small, sweet and sour berries.
  • “F1 Novel” (Roman F1) — remontant hybrid, forms a compact bush. Large, delicate pink flowers on long stems. Sweet, very aromatic berries.

In addition to those listed, this category also includes the previously mentioned varieties and hybrids: “F1’s Worldwide Debut”, “Pink Miracle”, “Tristan F1”, “Merlan F1”.

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