I m fed up with shop bought strawberries. Is it easy to grow your own

A.� Yes, strawberries are easily grown in pretty much any garden. They can be planted in the vegetable garden, greenhouse, in borders or in pots or window boxes if space is limited. The only proviso is that it is quite hard to get rid of organically produced plants. Most soft fruit is difficult to produce on a commercial scale without chemical treatment as they do suffer form a range of disease. In the garden, however, as long as you can take loosing a few to the slugs and snails, it's not much of a problem.

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A.� Start now and continue into September. If you've got room and you want a continuous supply through summer to autumn, stagger the planting of different varieties that fruit at different times. If you get them in the ground now they will have time to establish themselves sufficiently to produce a good crop the next year. Spring planted crops will only produce a handful of fruit in their first summer. They say you can halve the crop for every month they are not planted following September.

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A.� Strawberries do best in rich well dug soil so add plenty of organic matter like well rotted compost or manure before planting. If possible, plant them in rows that have been ridged up by 3-4 inches. This helps keep the crop off the ground and reduces the amount lost to the slugs and snails. Although they must get sun to ripen properly it is a good idea to scatter them around. Those facing south will ripen early while those in a north facing border will mature later, giving you a late summer/early autumn crop. If you are planting them in a hot spell water well and often to stop them wilting. Established plants should be watered if they show signs of wilt but try and keep the watering to a minimum as over-watering actually dilutes their flavour.

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A.� As well as the slugs and snails birds can be a real problem, being just as fond of strawberries as we are. Erecting a net cage, tall enough to make picking easy, is the standard way to protect soft fruit, but if you are concerned about trapping small birds in the net try making a home made bird scarer.

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If you don't want to go the whole hog and build a scarecrow, try dangling unwanted CDs off a pole. Birds are scared off by flashing light and movement. Another technique is to poke pheasant feathers into a large potato and suspend it in the air. Apparently this looks like a threatening bird of prey to your average garden bird.

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