[galen]

Long winded but I am trying to perpetuate future gardeners of the world   

As a family we were down the lottie this weekend but most of the time was spent digging. Apart from rehousing the worms our daughter was a lot more interested in seeing everyone else sowing seeds and planting (being 3.5 (her, not me) trying to explain that our plants were growing / chitting happily at home until we get to plant them out cut no ice. 

However....

An area which I planned to plant strawberries next autumn has been dug over. I popped down a local "place where you live"base store today and saw they had summer strawberry plants in approx 3 inch pots in stock. They will be only sacrificial but if I manage to finish off the bed (1.2m by 3.5m) with multi purpose compost and some fish blood and bone will I

a) be able to plant some out this Sunday;
b) get any fruit this year ?

It may seem a waste of money as I know you should wait a year before cropping but I am trying to keep the little one interested in our allotment as well as everyone else’s and strawberries are her favourite fruit !!

I don't mind this years plants being sacrificial.....

[Elcie]

There are lots of other varieties you can plant that will keep her interested.  Radish comes to mind, even broad beans which will germinate relatively quickly can be exciting.  Salads are quick too.

[digalotty]

my daughter is 6 and asked for her own patch to grow strawberrys and flowers, the first time we ever grew cress she was hooked

[sunshineband]

My three year old granddaughter is totally hooke don platning /growing now --- a real winner was planting cress seeds in the shape of her name etc saying Happy Birthday Poppy. We ate the cress when it got too hard to read the words ( a bit hot by then!)
I think it's worth sacrificing some fruit this year for the greater good!

[galen]

That's a great idea sunshineband, ages to her birthday but I think a "Hello Emma" would go down well !!

I do have a small patch which was going to be idle this year so I could make a her own bed to grow what she wants. I've bought  loads of Nasturtiums and Marigolds for companion planting, maybe I'll also get some bedding plants when I pick up my strawberries.

Unfortunately I've got no broad beans but have thought of another sacrificial plant - How about some of my peas, sown early for there sprouts only ?

Off to buy my sacrificial strawberries then ....

[purplebean]

why would the strawberries be sacrificial? I planted some last year got a reasonable crop, most are still growing and I have several new plants from runners.

I didn't get to eat any of the strawberries as my son who was then 4 simply picked them all off the plant and into his mouth 

[galen]

May be not sacrificial then 

I'd read somewhere to pick the flowers off during the first year but having just hunted through all my books I've realised I was grasping the wrong end of the stick  It's with the early and late varieties - Mid season should produce a good crop in the first year (Sorry to quote another author John but I should reveal my source of "misreading" and now clarification, Caroline Foley, The Allotment Handbook).

Anyway all cleared up now, I'll have to be more careful when reading in future...

Roll on the strawberries then 

[andreadon]

the only year i got decent strawbs was the first year.
god knows what happened to them after that - probably birds....

you could pop them in and put a cold frame over them and remove it when the chance of frost has past (lift the lid during the day)

[Stripey_cat]

You could get some alpine strawberry seed - the plants are very cute, a bit tougher than normal ones, and very tasty.

[galen]

My original intention for strawberries was to plant one of the "everbearer" ones,  especially as some had been developed just down the road from me at East Malling - The Malling Opal took my fancy. I'll continue with my "place where you live"base Cambridge Favourite plants for this year and may well replace / start second bed with the everbearers in the Autumn.

I mentioned to the little one that we all had to help plant things down the lottie this Sunday and her reply was "Strawberries??"  Could be onto a winner then...

Forgot to say, thanks everyone for your replies