PM project: the fruit bed

This afternoon I turned my attention to our fruit bed.  I had already laid down the soaker hose so I pulled the strawberry starts from my fridge.  I was having a hard time visualizing 50 strawberry plants one foot apart, so I snagged 50 toothpicks from my baking supplies and spread them around to help me with my spacing.

I left the hairy mess of starts out on a plate between damp paper towels since it was short-sleeve weather and I didn't want the roots to dry out. 

Raintree Nursery (where I got them) says that strawberries are very flexible: they can be planted in mounds, beds, rows, containers, etc. -- but their root tips should be straight.   Now the rest of what I show you I might have gotten wrong.  I am NOT an expert.  I did what seemed right for me -- it may or may not be right, it may or may not be right for you. 

Disclaimer complete, I will now share my process: when I planted my starts I would flip the berries upside down and open up their root skirts.

Then I would place them in a prepared hole.  I prepared the holes by shoveling out a spadeful of dirt, then crumbling most of the dirt back in careful to be gentle with the worms.  Then I would shape the crumbled dirt in the hole into a mound that was essentially soil level high before setting the strawberry start on top so its skirt would fan out.

Then I would cover the roots with the remaining soil.  If you look around you can find a lot of pictures like this one from Ask The Berry Man that give a visual of the level at which the crown should be planted.  I hope I got it right. 

For the most part though I didn't worry much about planting my strawberries because I knew that the area would be covered with compost later this afternoon -- and that made me feel like I had backup.  So by day's end, with the help of a neighborhood teenager who hauled all the compost, my fruit bed looked like this.

I can't wait to see what it looks like this summer!  But for now, with an achy back and a mild fever, it is time to get myself to bed so I can recuperate for tomorrow.