Strawberry Dreams

I have a dream.  It is spring in Louisiana, a lovely morning in March or April.  I have my coffee fixed, and a bowl of creamy oatmeal ready to set down on the table for my breakfast.  First, though, I open the door and step out to the little garden in my front yard and peek into the bountiful leafy plants lining the edges of the raised bed and pluck a handful of beautiful, juicy red strawberries.  After popping a couple of them into my mouth, I walk back into the house with the rest to top my oatmeal…  It’s a dream, y’all.  I have never had much success growing strawberries!

I loved going strawberry picking with the kids back in NC.  Whitaker Farms (https://www.whitakerfarm.com/) was our favorite place to go for picking.  Strawberries have always been one of my favorite fruits.  We even made strawberry jam as gifts for the guests at my daughter’s wedding.

Strawberries are very healthy for you. They are high in vitamin C, flavonoids, magnesium and fiber, just to mention a few.  The really cool thing is that they are also low on the glycemic index (blood sugar impact) in spite of their yummy sweetness.  It’s a wonderful thing when one of the things you love to eat actually loves you back instead of killing you slowly with insulin resistance!

I’ve tried growing strawberries more than once in my history of gardening, always with less than stellar results.  Every time I research growing them, the articles and tutorials just raved about how easy and delicious homegrown strawberries are.  Well, I have not found that to be true in my experience.  What berries grew for me got ravaged by the snails and birds.  The few that we got were very tasty, but hardly worth the effort.  And yet something drives me to try again…

Maybe I just can’t admit defeat in the face of so many testimonials of success. Not to mention that I have a family reputation as a “green thumb” to uphold.  My Grandpa Maddox was a gardener, and I like to think I am carrying on a legacy, of sorts.  Although come to think of it, I don’t remember Grandpa ever growing strawberries…

Maybe the sweet lure of strawberry sweetness is what draws me in. When I see the beautiful baskets of strawberry plants at the big box store in March, I just can’t resist.  Maybe I’m just a sucker for punishment?  Whatever the reason, my garden at the moment is over-run with leafy strawberry plants that occasionally produce a scrawny berry, which is immediately snatched up by squirrels or mocking birds.

I got an email from the LSU Ag Center recently (I’m on their mailing list) saying it is time to order strawberry plants for October planting.   Who knew that I should plant strawberries in October here in Louisiana- I mean, besides the Ag Center and presumably every farmer in the state?

These are a variety especially developed for growing in our hot, humid climate.   We got our tomato plants from the Ag center this year, and they did really well for us.  So, of course, I pulled out the checkbook and ordered 50 strawberry plants!  Now I gotta get to pulling weeds.  I promise to keep you updated…