These wild strawberries have taken over most of my backyard. Last year I noticed one or two spread out before the frost hit. This year they came in force. It's great, I've only had to mow once this summer. They must not be very tasty though because the squirrels still prefer eating whatever seeds I try to plant instead.
by Melonclowny
17 Comments
Mannn I hate to say this…but that’s the invasive strawberry- potentilla. False strawberry, flavorless and useless…
Replace with Fragaria Virginiana….our native wild strawberry. They are freaking delicious!!!! And form an excellent groundcover like this…
This stuff is only mildly better than grass…sorry to drop this on ya!
Nom nom nom. My yard is shadier/cooler so berries are still on the way, but munched on a handful in my parents’ yard today. Wild strawberries grow rampant here in southern Finland, one of my favorite parts of summer.
I went through the same thing as you… used to be so happy about all my “wild strawberry”, but then turns out its mock strawberry. invasive plant.
Then realized i have a TON of wild violet. and also clover which isnt native but im more fine with it. So you take the good with the bad. maybe one day i’ll try pulling out the mock strawberry.
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Sorry to hear these are potentilla. Initially I was very jealous of you as strawberries don’t spread well here, at least mine have not. I probably don’t water enough, I guess.
if i could i’d offer to help pull out all those mock strawberries and replace them with runners from my wild strawberries, because right now they’re putting out so many, so quickly i don’t know what to do with them.
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A big tip I learned from my Native Plants teacher is that if you plant strawberries in a container with mint you will have amazing tasting strawberries. The reasoning is that in the wild strawberries are found growing in the same area as plants in the mint family because they replenish the nutrients that the strawberries remove from the soil.
I’ve been doing this with my container strawberries since learning that tip and I must admit they are way more flavorful! Just remember to do this in a container to prevent the mint from taking over your garden.
I’m glad you posted this because I didn’t know they were invasive 😫 we have a lot of cleaning up to do this weekend 😅
But we did plant regular strawberry plants in garden beds. Last year they did meh, this year they spread like crazy and produced a TON of strawberries. It was so fun picking them every evening, but the season felt so short 😞
Thats mock strawberry
indian strawberries. birds like them
These will be easy to find and kill right now, but a tip that may help later, especially if you introduce native strawberries: The most distinct feature these have are bright yellow flowers instead of the natives, which have white ones. Mock strawberry flowering season is when I do a lot of my killin’.
I’m a new homeowner and I was so excited when I discovered these and then so disappointed to find out they’re invasive and also taste like…grass.
You’re getting a lot of shit, but it’s certainly better than only grass
Those are not wild strawberries. They are snake berries and have absolutely no taste. They aren’t in the strawberry family at all, but probably one of the best common mimic weeds I know of.
You can tell by the fact the seeds are protruding from the surface of the berry. Strawberries have their seeds recessed into the surface of the berry. Also the berries stick up, where strawberries hang down. The flower color is also different.
These run so fast and thick, if only true strawberries spread like that
Have you ever seen a strawberry in your life? Lol
To this day the best heirloom tomatoes I’ve ever grown were in a little hoop house I literally forgot about for a month (luckily I’d left some of the drip irrigation on). They were almost the size of my head and the most flavorful I’ve every had! 🤷🏻♀️ Lol