How to Grow Strawberries in a Raised Bed

How to Grow Strawberries in a Raised Bed

Try Growli: Snap a photo of your strawberry plants and the Growli app will identify the variety, check the crown depth, and flag slug or bird damage before it spreads.

A raised bed is close to ideal for strawberries: it warms early in spring, drains freely so crowns don't sit wet, and lifts the fruit away from the slugs and splash that ruin berries at ground level. Get four things right — variety, crown depth, first-year flower management, and bird timing — and a 1.2 m (4 ft) bed can crop for years. Here is the full method, fact-checked against university Extension and RHS guidance.

Which strawberry variety should I grow?

Pick a June-bearing variety for one big summer flush, or an everbearing/day-neutral variety for smaller pickings across the season. The choice changes how you prune and when you harvest, so decide before you plant.

According to multiple university Extension services (Illinois, Minnesota), June-bearing strawberries crop in one concentrated three-week flush in June to early July, produce the largest berries and yields, and throw the most runners. Everbearing types give a flush in early summer, then smaller amounts into autumn, while day-neutral plants fruit steadily from early summer to first frost but with smaller berries. Good beginner June-bearers include Honeoye (early, cold-hardy), Earliglow (widely rated best-flavoured), and the UK favourite Cambridge Favourite. For a UK everbearer, Ostara is a popular perpetual variety — RHS lists it cropping from around July into autumn, with a spreading habit that suits raised beds and containers.

How deep should I plant a strawberry crown?

Set each plant so the crown — the point where new growth emerges — sits right at the soil line. Bury it and it rots; perch it too high and the roots dry out. This single detail decides whether your plants establish or sulk.

University of Maryland and Oregon State Extension both put the middle of the crown level with the soil surface, with the roots fully covered and fanned out, not bunched. Press the soil firmly around the roots so there are no air pockets, but never let soil drift over the crown itself. The YouTube growers we drew on framed this as "crown above soil," which is the right instinct — the failure mode they're warning against is burying it — but the Extension target is precisely at the line, not proud of it. Water in well after planting so the roots make immediate contact.

Should I cut the flowers off in the first year?

On June-bearing strawberries, yes — pinch every flower stalk off at the base through the first growing season. It feels brutal, but the plant pours that energy into roots and leaves instead of a few small berries, and rewards you with a far bigger crop the following June.

Iowa State and Ohio State Extension are explicit: for June-bearers, removing first-year flowers builds a larger plant and root system and increases next year's yield. (One of our source growers stopped de-flowering in early May to steal a small first-year crop — a reasonable gamble with strong plants, but the textbook approach for maximum long-term yield is to remove flowers the entire first season.) For everbearing and day-neutral types, the common Extension advice is to remove flowers only until around the end of June, then let later flowers set fruit for a summer-and-autumn harvest the same year.

How far apart should I space strawberries?

Space June-bearers about 45–60 cm (18–24 in) apart in a matted row and let runners fill the gaps; space everbearing and day-neutral plants tighter at roughly 20–30 cm (8–12 in) since they runner less. Crowding any type invites mildew and rot in still, humid air.

Minnesota Extension's raised-bed layout sets day-neutral plants about 20 cm (8 in) apart in staggered double rows on a bed around 60 cm (24 in) wide. If your bed is short on floor space, a strawberry tower — stacked or tiered pots — multiplies growing area vertically and keeps fruit off the soil entirely. Strawberries also share the same brief as Mediterranean cooking herbs: both want full sun and lean, well-drained soil, so a sunny corner you've planned for Mediterranean herbs like rosemary and thyme is exactly the spot strawberries thrive in too.

When should I net strawberries against birds?

Net the bed before any fruit starts to turn red. Birds routinely take the very first ripe berries the day they colour up — wait until you see red and you've already lost the early crop.

Drape ¼-inch (about 6 mm) mesh bird netting over a simple frame of stakes or PVC hoops so it sits above the leaves rather than resting on the fruit, and pin the edges to the ground. Keeping the net off the plants lets pollinators still reach the flowers and stops birds from pecking through the mesh. Check under the netting regularly so no bird gets trapped. One of our source gardeners in the UK watched birds strip the first ripe berries the same morning they reddened in mid-June — a vivid reminder that the net goes up at the green-fruit stage, not later.

How do I water, mulch, and stop slugs?

Water at the base in the morning, mulch with straw to keep fruit clean and dry, and treat slugs with parasitic nematodes rather than relying on a single fix. Slugs and birds are the two pests most likely to beat you to the fruit.

Straw mulch (the classic, and the origin of the name) keeps berries off wet soil, suppresses weeds, and slows the slugs and rots that ruin ground-level fruit. For slugs, the biological control Nemaslug uses the nematode Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita, watered into moist soil as a drench. UK suppliers report roughly six weeks of control per application, and it works in cool, wet conditions where pellets wash away — but research and Extension sources agree nematodes reduce slug damage rather than eliminate it, so pair them with straw mulch and raised-bed height. Avoid overhead watering, which wets foliage and encourages fungal disease — the same base-watering rule that underpins our wider guide to watering a vegetable garden. For slug-prone plots, layer in the non-chemical tactics from our organic pest control guide.

What do I do in year two?

After the first harvest, renovate the bed: trim old foliage, thin overcrowded plants, top up mulch, and feed lightly. A strawberry bed stays productive for several years before fruiting tails off and you replant from runners.

A well-renovated matted row of June-bearers will out-yield a tired, congested bed every time, so don't let runners turn the whole bed into a mat of competing plants. Replace the bed every three to four years using your healthiest runners, or start fresh stock if disease appears. If strawberries are part of your first proper growing season, fold them into the broader plan in our guide to starting a vegetable garden for beginners.

About the sources

This guide is built from three documented real-world grower journeys — Epic Gardening (Southern California), a first-year UK raised-bed project, and a 15-year New Jersey (zone 7A) garden — used as practical, lived experience. Every specific or safety-related claim (crown depth, first-year flower removal, spacing, bird netting timing, and slug nematodes) was verified against university Extension services (Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon State, Iowa State, Ohio State, Illinois) and the RHS. Where Extension and the growers differed, we followed the Extension guidance.