Strawberries planted in the garden far surpass any commercial varieties

If you've got room, growing your own strawberries is one of the most rewarding experiences because the flavour and freshness of home-grown berries just picked surpasses the firm-fruited varieties sold by supermarkets and growers by a mile.

Commercial growers tend to grow Elsanta', purely for its ability to crop heavily and travel well, but it lacks flavour and juice to my mind. The trouble is when you do decide to grow strawberries in your own garden you enter a battle zone fiercer than any other.

The enemies on the ground are slugs, snails, leatherjacket and wireworm larvae, vine weevil and woodlice. For organic gardeners like me, who won't use slug bait or toxins, it's best to grow your plants on a mound bed in full sun and water on slug-attacking nematodes in the middle of April.

Once the fruit forms, it helps to place fresh straw under the trusses and frisk them every evening while at the same time praying for dry, sunny weather. Strawberries like the sun. Polythene cloching causes grey mould in damp weather and I generally avoid it.

In the air you are up against the blackbird and thrush who will try to rear their young on your strawberry patch, so netting them is also inevitable.

It is hard work. But you do get to choose your variety, though you must buy virus-free, certified stock from a good fruit nursery like Ken Muir (see below). Ken, who exhibits at Chelsea and supplies two types of plant, has done more to popularise growing strawberries and other fruit than anyone else. Open-ground runners are sold from October until November and cold-stored plants are sold from March until July.

Plants should crop for four years and you can raise more by potting up the runners, though some perpetual varieties do not produce any. Two good early choices would be Honeoye', an American variety with large, round berries, and Rosie', a dark-red variety with a good flavour. For midsummer onwards, Hapil', a conical red variety grown by pick-your-owns, has always performed well for me. Korona' is also excellent, with a good flavour and juicy, large fruits.

Strawberries should be planted in open conditions where frost doesn't linger and they will tolerate all soils, although diseases are more likely on heavier soil. If your garden catches late frosts, go for later varieties because strawberry flowers turn black when frosted and won't produce fruit.

When the plants are young, cut off all the runners and, if the plants are very young when they first flower, remove them as well. Both measures will allow your plants to thrive and become very floriferous. As your originals lose vigour, usually in their fifth year, you can allow them to put out new runners to replace the originals, or order some more.

They make an excellent edging to a vegetable patch but if you do use them in this way you won't be able to grow potatoes close to them because disease, principally verticillium wilt, passes between them.

Supplier Ken Muir can be contacted on 0870 74 79 111 or you can call up the www.kenmuir.co.uk website.

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