Edible strawberry ecology notes: A few times in my life I've stumbled upon magical little ecosystems where strawberries (both wild and domesticated plants) just seemed to thrive with stable yields over a period of many years. In some cases, these were wild systems with just the right combination of soil, sun and plant associates to keep the strawberries going at moderate productivity. Too much sun or fertility, and grasses or more aggressive plants will outcompete them! Too little, and they may persist but won't be productive. In other cases, they had escaped their "patch" to become a weedy groundcover in perennial gardens, usually with woodchip mulches and part day direct sun, with some sort of tree cover nearby. Such edible wild systems are the major inspiration for our gardening, and our main goal is to design and recreate those kinds of plant communities here. Of course, these will never be as productive as in a dedicated garden with full sun, ample compost and irrigation. But if we can get a decade of stable moderate productivity with no non-harvest labor, and have a system to pull new plants from, then I consider that a big win. For 7 years I've experimented with a dozen varieties and in appropriate-looking plant communities in our garden without success. Then, last year a deer broke a branch off our contorted mulberry allowing JUST ENOUGH direct sun into the understory, and a strawberry patch established itself from a few plants that had survived sheer total utter neglect and deep shade. It's too early to see if this guild will stabilize, but having a target plant thrive on its own is the kind of first step I look for in creating such systems. #plantguilds #plantcommunities #strawberriesFTW #foodforests https://www.instagram.com/p/ByAkExEDDkp/?igshid=7r9mcsidsapt
