It’s another one of those rites of passage of learning to garden–killing the strawberries you so desperately wanted to save. Everybody loves strawberries, but nobody likes it when the strawberry plants they invested in last Spring die a slow and horrible death over the cold Canadian Winter. Not that I’m bitter about the time it happened to me, or anything.
Here’s how you (and your strawberries) can avoid this terrible fate. I’ll even show you how to keep your strawberries alive even if you planted them in containers.

Disclaimer time: I garden in in zone 3b in the Canadian Prairies and thus my advice is best suited to that region, and also highly applicable to zones 2 and 4. I realize that readers from many warmer zones read my stuff, so I’ve tried to account for your situation where possible. I love comments from those who live in other places! Your knowledge of different zones helps lots of people become better gardeners. . .which is probably why you’re here in the first place.
Second disclaimer, as of writing this post I’m 19 weeks pregnant and. . . hormonal, shall we say? As I’m re-reading this I realize it might come off as really angry, but it’s meant to be funny. I hope it’s funny.
[Read more…]Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots. She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden. She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.