Country Enterprise - growing strawberries in your garden. soft fruit such as wild alpine strawberries.

<P> Summer would not be summer without strawberries and cream.</P><P> You can choose from giant, fist-sized berries down to the tiny Alpine strawberry. Strawberries can grow in herbaceous borders or in special beds — their low ground covering habit can make them suitable in a low-maintenance garden — and the trailing varieties look stunning on patios and terraces. You can grow them in tall, hollow pillars — cascades of green with succulent red fruits. </P><P>With plenty of manure, the obliging fruit produces pounds of berries from a single plant. We grow Alpine strawberries as path edgings. One Alpine strawberry, then a lemon balm plant and so on. (The smell of lemon in the evening is beautiful and as it is a herb, it is also a crop.) The Alpine strawberries produce right through the summer and in sheltered spots you can even find the odd berry in winter. Like raspberries, the strawberry is a favourite with the birds, although at least some of the fruits are hidden under the spreading leaves. </P><P ALIGN=RIGHT> <A HREF=fruit5.htm TARGET=mainframe STYLE="text-decoration: none">strawberries</A></P>