These had been potted up and overwintered in our cold greenhouse but there were nothing like as many plants as were needed for our new bed. We needed to buy more plants. When our new plants arrived we potted them up and grew them on until the conditions were favourable for planting outdoors, A few weeks before planting the new strawberry plants were transferred to a cold frame.

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Meanwhile a new bed was prepared. After digging over, some multipurpose compost that had been used in tubs and grow bags the previous year was incorporated into the soil and fertiliser applied.

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As I mentioned previously we grow strawberries through weed control fabric and so the fabric from the old bed was reused on this bed. As crosses had already been cut in the fabric, planting holes were ready done and all that was required was to mulch the fabric with wood chippings.  The bed could them be planted up. This was done n two parts as after the first lot of plants had been planted the weather took a turn for the worse and we held off planting the rest until conditions improved.

Frost was expected and as some of the plants were flowering we covered half the bed that had already been planted up with enviromesh in an attempt to prevent the flowers from being spoiled.

If the flowers are frosted the centres turn black which shows that the parts of the flower that would have formed into a fruit have been killed.

Once danger of frost had passed and the weather improved the rest of the bed was planted up and the plants still growing in the bags were relocated

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The video below shows more detail of the planting process.