Summer would not be summer without strawberries and cream.

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.

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.

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