Part One: The Plan, The Seeds and the Location.

For anyone unaware, I am Eastern European by background, which means that I grew up eating some unique foods. Living in Australia, it was very rare and costly when we went back to Europe to visit family, but it also meant we were flooded with delicious treats. One such treat that my grandmother and aunt saved for me were alpine strawberries (Fragaria vesca), or as I know them, poziomki. From my very first taste, I have loved alpine strawberries, and they just hold so many wonderful memories for me, which is why I have decided to try growing them in my garden. In an attempt to hone a better connection to my culture as well as stay active, strive for positive mental health and learn to garden, I have decided to embark on a Garden Quest, which is to grow my own alpine strawberries.

Compared to a normal strawberry, alpine strawberries are much smaller in size, have a more pineapple-like flavour to them, and their plant does not produce runners which means they don’t spread too much in the garden. Alpine strawberries, also known as Woodland Strawberries, originated from Europe and Asia but over time, their plant has been cultivated, altered and bred to create varieties known for their unique flavour which is better than their original. Alpine strawberries grow in small conical clumps earning them the French nickname of fraises des bois or berries of the woods and are loved, celebrated and enjoyed throughout their harvest period. As they do not have runners, they can apparently be cut up after a few years and divided amongst your garden space.

After a little research, I found this source, which helped me gain a better understanding of how to grow Alpine strawberries from seed. Savvy Gardening states that alpine strawberries are apparently easy to grow from seed, which is how I will be planting mine. They state that you can sow the seeds indoors and then replant or just straight out into the garden. As it is currently the first few weeks of spring, I will be planting mine outdoors as the fear of frost is over, and I can try a few locations in my garden to see where the seeds grow best. It’s worth noting that I am in Western Australia in zone 8 (although I have read I could also be zone 5 or 11a, which is throwing me for a loop), and we have rainy winters and quite hot summers. My biggest fear is them surviving the summer heat and all the critters who might like to snack on them. This particular blog really helped me plan my sowing and although it’s too late to grow all my seedlings indoors, I am tempted to give it a try regardless.

Let’s take a closer look at our seeds.

Currently in my possession, I have 6 packs of Alpine strawberry seeds. The first three are from D.T. Brown and contain 100 seeds, and the last three are from Mr Fothergill’s. I have the red and white Alpine strawberry mix with 150 seeds per packet (3 packets total). That is a total of 750 alpine strawberry seeds, and all I can do is hope that some will survive. I am tempted to try a different brand of seeds (such as Yates), but for now, these two will do and I will update if I make an irresponsible purchase.

As I have so many packets already, I am wanting to plant the seeds in a few different areas of my garden as this will hopefully yield me the best results.

The planting locations will be as follows:
-a terracotta pot in a directly sunny spot in the back garden
-a small plastic pot in a partly shady area in the back garden
-chaos scattering in backyard for luck

My garden is currently in the midst of a huge redo which means that some areas need to be planted up when the time is right. This means that I may be planting in a few more areas but I just need to wait till the seasons are right. One other thought I had was I am hopefully getting an Elderflower tree and as it will arrive way too small for it’s intended pot, I might plant some extra strawberries in the pot with the tree as well. My sheer determination to grow a piece of fruit is consuming my life right now and keeping me from doom scrolling so let’s get going.

Plantation 1: Pot in a Sunny Spot

Plantation 2: Pot in a partially shady area

Plantation 3: Chaos scatterings in backgarden

Our first two seed planting areas were set up on the 19th of September and have been left to grow in peace.
One planting area is done in a large terracotta pot. This will live in a sunny spot close to a decent water supply.

The second planting was done in a smaller plastic pot, and it will live in a slightly less sunny spot, also on the right side of the garden. There was an incident on the 22nd where this smaller pot was fully tipped over, so this pot was started from scratch on the 25th of September. As I was sad to lose so many seeds, I have just panic watered the spot where the pot was tipped and maybe something will survive even of the chance of that is very low.

Our random seed scattering ethod was done on the 30th of September. These seeds were sprinkled around the front edge of a backyard flower bed. Hopefully this form of chaos gardening will yield something.

For my seedling, I am trying to keep the soil from drying out without flooding my seedlings or damaging them. Hopefully in the next two months I can update and share all the new growth which I am so excited to do.

Quest Twist: We found potted plants!

Suddenly, out of nowhere, we also found some alpine strawberry plants in pots at Bunnings! Whilst out and about checking out stuff at local garden centres and various Bunnings stores, I came across some small pots of already sprouted alpine strawberries. I was so excited and I purchased 3 of these pots to put in different garden locations. All these pots were planted on the 28th of September.
The first was planted on the back left of my garden, the second on the back right of my garden. The third pot was planted on the right side of my garden. This will hopefully help us keep something alive, I will get to see how differnt parts of the garden handle the plants as well as it gives me a chance to monitor various light and water conditions.

There is one concern I have about these pre-sprouted plants. Although they are labelled as Alpine Strawberries, the image depicted on the pot is not an alpine strawberry but a more common strawberry. At this point, it’s a plant and pray situation which means I am understanding that I may be duped or surprised but I guess we will have to wait and see. There is so much hope that these established plants will survive and I am tempted to grab some more and plant them everywhere.

It may seem a bit silly to become mildly obsessed with growing something like an alpine strawberry but in order to bring myself joy thats away from a screen and keep me moving, something like this little goal can help me greatly. There’s not much joy in the news or social media these days so I’ve turned my attention to making sure I do things that bring me joy, I have given myself some short term goals and I’m also trying to learn new skills. By posting my Garden Quest, I am hoping to encourage you to start a Garden Quest of your own. There’s so many great things you can grow in all sorts of spaces and something delicious and edible can add a little something to your dinners which is heaps of fun. I have a personal goal of being able to use my garden to help supply the gift of stunning bouquets of flowers, and something that I can add to a snack, salad or to my dinner plate a few times a week.

So here it is, the beginning of an epic Garden Quest where we will hopefully be snacking on some delicious alpine strawberries in just a few months. I will be updating this blog below with date stamps, so remember to check back when you can. There will be a proper post update once (or I guess, if) there has been significant growth progress. I’m so happy to be sharing my garden with you and to drag you along with all the antics as I fight away bugs, weeds and battle the Aussie summer sun.

In case you are unaware, we have another Garden Quest thats happening at the same time where we are planning on making pickles from scratch. Well, I don’t mean crafting a physical pickle, we will be growing them, but I have a goal to make pickled pickles from my heritage. This Garden Quest is already underway so check it out here!

Note: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions and thoughts expressed are solely my own and not influenced in any way. There are no affiliate links and I do not benefit from any link clicks or purchases made.