Back Home by Chris Hardie
Starting our new garden area last year was a lot of work but we are finally experiencing the fruits of our labor.
Last year’s plantings of strawberries are now providing us the sweet taste of late spring that is always a delicious way to welcome summer.
Wisconsin ranks ninth in U.S. strawberry production, with more than 3 millions pounds of annual harvest. The state also is in the top five for pick-your-own operations, which doesn’t include the backyard growers like my wife, Sherry, and me.
Our new strawberry patch began in the fall of 2024 when we covered an area of our yard with heavy plastic to suppress additional grass and weed growth. We left that area covered all winter and removed the plastic the following spring. The new area was cultivated and tilled and planted with a combination of new strawberry plants from the nursery along with the relocation of a few dozen plants that were hardy enough to keep surviving in our former weed-choked patch.
Each row I covered with some dried manure and compost from our former sheep and animal barn and I mulched between the spaced rows with a thick layer of grass clippings.
The plants clearly enjoyed that fertile combination because the space between the rows was soon overtaken by new runners, leaving a lush and thick patch this spring that was pretty much one solid mass.
Any kind of gardening is simply a smaller version of farming, subject to the weather and challenges that nature throws your way. This spring was particularly challenging with late frosts coming just as the plants were blossoming. It also was a dry spring, not a welcome development for the shallow-rooted plants in our sandy soil.
Another challenge that developed for some strawberry growers was winter root rot. Sylla’s Acres, a family-owned five-acre strawberry farm near Whitehall had to cancel its 2026 season because of the rot. The farm announced on Facebook that it planted more than 21,000 new plants and is hopeful for the 2027 season.
The frost took its toll on some of our plants and certainly impacted our production, as the early blossoms provide the biggest berries. But we watered and crossed our fingers. The surviving plants are producing the sweetness and freshness that you simply don’t get with those berries in the store that come from thousands of miles away.
But like I said, it’s farming and the dry weather turned very wet and humid recently, causing us to throw away many of the berries that were rotting before they could be picked. It would help if all of the plants were elevated in rows surrounded by dry straw, but pristineness and perfection have seldom been a part of my attempts to farm.
Of course we’re not the only ones who like strawberries. It’s essential to have netting over the rows to dissuade the hungry birds. Rodents are fond of them too. Hot and humid weather also takes its toll.
But we’ll begrudgingly lose a few naturally-grown berries rather than rely upon the California chemical drip irrigation process of chloropicrin and 1,3-dichloropropene. And with some proper care and lots of luck from Mother Nature, our beds will last three to six years compared to the one year of production in California.
I better get my back stretched. Sherry already is talking about future strawberry bed expansion.
Don’t delay
Wisconsin’s strawberry picking season is only a few weeks, so don’t delay. If you want to find a local grower near you, check out the Wisconsin Berry Growers Association at wiberries.org.
Chris Hardie spent more than 30 years as a reporter, editor
