Grow your own sensational strawberries – just like the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s children

Between the ages of seven and 16 I was at boarding school, and on my birthday in early July my parents would visit with the special treat of strawberries from the garden at home. 

The quantity varied enormously. Some years I was presented with just one small punnet; in other years I could feed practically the whole school.

I accepted this for what, even at that tender age, I knew it was – the vagaries of the season and the weather. This did not reduce the pleasure. In fact, it made the strawberries we did get all the more delicious.

Monty Don (pictured) shared his expert advice for growing your own strawberries at home

If you want to grow your own crop this summer – as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s children George, seven, Charlotte, five, and Louis, three, are said to do in the outdoor patch at their garden in Norfolk – you can put in plants now (bought from garden centres or online) and be enjoying the fruit within three months.

Maincrop strawberries start to fruit in June and are all done by the end of July. Avoid commercial types such as ‘Elsanta’ that are chosen for their robustness in handling and storage. 

We have ‘Gariguette’ in the vegetable garden. The delicious fruits are only at their best for a day or two – meaning you’re unlikely to find them in a shop, which gives you the perfect reason to grow your own.

So-called perpetual strawberries ripen between July and October, taking over when the conventional summer crops have finished. One of this group, ‘Mara des Bois’, has been exceptionally good for us, cropping well and giving exceptional flavour. 

The small but delicious alpine strawberry, Fragaria alpina, fruits constantly from June to October and is easily grown from seed. I also have some F. vesca ‘Mignonette’ plants, which grow strongly for alpines and produce some of the most fragrant fruit of all.

Most strawberries grow well from seed, but it is easier to propagate maincrop varieties by taking runners. The mother plant sends out a tendril along which a new plantlet will have started to grow – you can simply peg down the tendril either side of the immature plant, and about a month later cut the stem either side of the pegs, then lift the by-now rooted plantlet to place in its new position. 

To avoid transferring potential disease or viruses, take runners from one-year-old plants, after their first harvest.

Strawberries grow best on rich soil but whatever soil you have, adding garden compost or manure will increase their quality and quantity. Plants should be given a 45-60cm spacing in rows or blocks, with the base of the central crown at soil level.

Strawberry plants are at their peak in their second and third years so it’s best to dig them up after their third harvest and put them onto the compost heap. 

How to plant clematis 

  • Clematis roots like rich, shady, well-watered soil.
  • Soak the plant pot in water while you prepare a hole twice the size of the pot and 30cm from the wall. Angle the supporting cane towards the wall. Add a bucket of compost and a handful of bonemeal.
  • Place the plant so the soil level is 2.5cm below the top of your hole. Fill the topsoil to the junction of plant and compost (pictured, left) and give it a bucket of water. When this has drained, top up with a thick mulch.
  • Put pebbles around it to keep the roots moist. Give it a bucket of water at least once a week.
  • After planting, prune down to a strong bud about 30cm off the ground. This seems drastic but it will ensure a strong, healthy framework to establish the plant and encourage many more flowers in future years.

As well as giving a diminishing crop after their third year, strawberries are very prone to viral diseases that can remain in the soil for a few years, so you should never replace old plants with new on the same site but rather keep a three to four-year rotation on separate plots.

Tuck straw or a mat around each plant to keep the fruit off the ground and avoid slugs and rotting. Blackbirds love strawberries, so a net is essential once the fruits start to turn red.

Once the last strawberries have been collected, cut the foliage off to within about 8cm above the crown. New foliage will appear before autumn but most energy will go into the roots ready for next spring’s regrowth.

A mulch of garden compost after this annual cut-back is the only feeding that strawberries need. 

Your kitchen garden: Beetroot

Prince Louis’s favourite vegetable is beetroot. When eaten hot – either roasted with thyme or boiled, then served with a hot cream sauce – beetroot is truly delicious. The secret is to grow two or three batches a year and to eat them when they are young and tender.

Beetroot won’t germinate below 7˚C so I sow 2-3 seed clusters per plug (not too small) and germinate them in the greenhouse before hardening them off in a coldframe. 

I used to thin beetroot conscientiously, but I now like to grow them as a group of 2-5 beets. I prepare their growing ground with a good dressing of garden compost. 

They respond well to plenty of richness and water, and if too dry or unnourished then they’ll respond by bolting, which will stop root development unless the flowering stem is cut back as soon as possible. 

When the seedlings have been hardened off – the simplest way of doing that is to put the plug trays on the soil where they are to be grown for a week – I plant them out at 23cm spacings in each direction.

I make 3-4 sowings between March and August to keep a continuous supply. You can also grow in a container with at least 23cm depth for the roots.

Varieties I particularly like are ‘Pronto’, ‘Chioggia’, ‘Burpee’s Golden’ (above), ‘Pronto’ and ‘Carillon’.

Extracted and adapted from Gardening At Longmeadow by Monty Don, BBC Books, £26. © Monty Don 2012.