strawberries

hi all,,,   after loosing allmy straws over the last few years to mice I had given up on growing them,, however I have managed to source a small (ish) market stall type planter so i,m thinking of trying strawberries in this with the added bonus it wil stay at home,  will i be ble to get a good crop if i can find some plants from a garden centre?

the planter bed thing is approx 4 ft x 2ft so will be filling with compost and putting plants straight in, just not sure if i,m a little late this year?

Strawberry plants have a maximum life of 5 years - year 1 they're not old enough to bear properly, years 2-4 are prime years, though in year 4 they're tapering off, and year 5 the plant is just leaves and perhaps runners with no fruit on its own.

To keep production to a maximum, discard plants after the 3rd year's bearing and yearly replace these with new plants.

for this year, you're not too late but even if you planted earlier you still won't get cropping. A few people will jump in and say yes, my plants are cropping in year one, but it's at the expense of larger berries and bigger plants in the next few years.

im going to do this as the planters are a great idea i think
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=91333.0