Strawberry Shortcake - Growing Strawberries this Winter

Strawberry Shortcake; I’m sure everyone can agree with me, but one of the best parts of my Summer is the fresh produce. And sitting pretty at the head of every advertisement is STRAWBERRIES - 2 punnets for $15. 

It’s such a pitch, but going back to when I was a boy I’m not sure I knew the difference between any of the berries. The first berry I did learn though - Strawberry. It was a scented shampoo for anyone who is interested. And now, when the days are unbelievably short (my final water for the garden is at 4:30, not 9 like in summer), I long for some fresh strawberries.

My crop from last year was not all too great at producing honestly, disappointingly, but one thing they did produce were countless runners. From 2 plants to 8 in one season is a pretty good turn around. On the 1st day of June, 2025 I separated out my strawberry plants, pinching just above the root balls and pulling apart in as clean a movement as possible so as not to damage the mother root, and got them planted in a terracotta strawberry pot.

This season will be my first time using a strawberry pot, but having seen the great responses from my bulbs towards the outside of the terracotta pots I have good faith that the warmth the shell provides will help them through the nippy winter we are entering. Auckland, New Zealand can be a bit of a contradiction with the hot sun and cold atmosphere, so my little ones have been popped on the patio , where it will get roughly 4 hours of sunlight per day through June, so as to warm the pot, and therefore the soil for the roots and plants so they can survive the colder nights. Most gardeners will tell you the part sun part shade is the way to go, but how that works for you could be varied, so pay attention to your plants leaves and soil. It if dries out incredibly fast, and can’t retain moisture, them chances are that’s not the best spot for it, too direct and a little too hot. As long as you are watering semi regularly you should never get to Salt Lake dry, and instead be keeping just to the moisture when the ground is darker than you remember, but not soggy, like a good sticky date pudding. And the leaves are so important to watch. If the stems are droopy, and unhappy, it might be struggling to take up water, or share fructose, and this can happen for, say it with me now, a number of reasons. The most common is that there isn’t enough water or mineral in the ground for them to eat and drink. Strawberries leaves have a thicker and darker waxy cuticle than most fruiting plants, indicative of the hardiness in the colder seasons, but also if they dry out then you have REALLY missed the mark of how much they wanted to drink. The underside of those leaves are also usually silvery,  cultivar dependant, but if they get burnt is can be bad news bears, so if those plants are struggling a little bit after repotting, or haven’t had enough to drink, pop them in a more shaded spot.

Winter seems like it might be a strange time to plant out berries given what I have said above, synonymous with Summer and all, but to ensure you get a good sweet yield, winter is the perfect time to get those little guys in the ground. Prepare the ground with a nice loose grade soil, mix in some compost, if you believe in it slow release fertiliser, and make sure you bed them firmly. I use my thumbs near the stem and the heel of my palm to secure the ground. This time, using a put however, I had different things to consider, the root direction, the soil in the openings (The little Juliet Balconies that line the sides of the pot) and how the leaves would grow. My strawberries have grown fairly tall in their time in the shaded corner of the garden, amid the compost heap, so I used my secateurs to take down the tall outside stems and unnecessary foliage towards (plus any unsightly browns or eaten leaves) to ensure I had a thatch of good strong stems who would be easier for the plant to maintain in a new environment.

Fertilising strawberries is always important to promote growth, warmth where possible, and keeping the berries off the ground (too moist and they’ll start to rot), so get yourself ready by mounding your dirt you prepared earlier into little rows, so the plant is above the ground level, and ferts. I am presently trialing Naked, a fish based fert and I have yet to have a problem with it. Personally, I’d love a fully organic space, but with a development garden there is so much work in such little time to be done, so I am admittedly cutting some corners, and that’s okay! We don’t all have large swaths of time on our hands, but the important part is to get out there, experiment, learn. One day we can start to educate ourselves more of the ingredients we are using, their impacts, the business’ that sell them, and make decisions on a more ethical basis, and I encourage everyone to do the same.