A Garden That Gives Back

Strawberry season’s in full swing—here’s what we’re doing, what you can plant, and how to keep your harvest safe.

Author

The Grounded Homestead
June 10, 2025

Weekly roundup

Hey growers—here’s what’s happening in the berry patch

We’re clearing runners, reviving tired strawberry beds, and laying the groundwork for better fruit next year. Inside: how to start a patch that keeps giving, natural ways to handle six common strawberry pests, and a fresh recipe straight from the garden.

Homestead Happenings - Runner Season

Clearing the Beds—and Making Room for What’s Next

Our strawberries wrapped up a couple weeks back, which means we’re doing the real work—clearing beds, managing runners, and setting the foundation for next year’s harvest.

I’m happy for our friends in the colder zones who are just starting to pick ripe berries. Enjoy your fresh strawberries, we’re out here clipping, thinning, and digging out the old to make room for the new.

Thankfully this is one of those garden rhythms that feels more like stewardship than maintenance.

I spent the morning working through a 3-year-old patch—snipping off strays, checking which young plants rooted well, and yanking out mature plants that have outlived their prime. It’s the kind of quiet job that gives you time to think—especially about how much a garden gives when you give it a little structure. These new daughter plants are what keep the patch going—if you make space for them.

If your beds are starting to look wild or worn out, I put together a full post on how I handle runner overload, when to replant, and what I’ll be doing next year when this bed hits its retirement point.

Read the full post and watch the short video walkthrough. Click the button below to get the full experience.

Start Strong

Why Strawberries Should Be Your First Fruit

If I were starting over with a bare garden, strawberries would be the first thing I’d plant. They’re low-maintenance, high-yielding, and once they’re in, they’ll come back year after year with just a bit of care. For any homesteader trying to build something that lasts, strawberries are a wise perennial investment.

In this post, I break down exactly how to set up a patch that actually produces—from picking the right type for your space, to spacing, soil prep, and what no one tells you about first-year plants.

If you’re looking for fruit that pulls its weight and pays you back season after season, this is the place to start:

Berry Defense

Slugs in the Strawberries? Here’s How We Stop Them

You go out to pick the perfect berry… and find nothing but a soft, half-eaten shell with a slime trail leading into the mulch. Slugs are one of the most frustrating pests to deal with in a strawberry patch—and they work fast.

Here’s what we’ve found works best:

  • Lift the fruit: Keep berries off the soil with straw, pine needles, or a light trellis grid.

  • Water early: Dry soil by nightfall makes the bed less inviting.

  • Set traps: Shallow trays or tuna cans of beer near the patch catch dozens overnight.

  • Use grit: Crushed eggshells or diatomaceous earth around plants deter them without chemicals.

Slugs are just one of the six big threats we’ve had to handle in our berry beds. The rest? They fly, burrow, and bite—but they can all be handled naturally.

Our lettuce is hitting its stride

Lettuce Wraps w/ Garden Veggies & Hummus

That’s it for this week.

Keep showing up, keep cheering each other on — and as always, garden happy!

The Grounded Homestead