She doesn't make things with her strawberries, preferring to nibble if it strikes her fancy while tending to the garden. She does not recall the precise variety of those original bare-root berry plants, but she suspects they're everbearing, meaning they yield fruit over a long season. Unlike commercial growers, home gardeners do not get a wide variety of strawberry plants to choose from unless they order from a catalog, says Richard Molinar, farm adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension in Fresno. Calif. They are usually available in fall and from January through mid-February. Six-packs, which resemble egg cartons, often are sold in late February or spring.
Bare roots tend to be cheaper.
The primary reason for planting strawberries on raised beds is for drainage. So, they like to be on beds and not on flat ground. It's also easier to protect them from heat, which is a big problem in pots. Molinar recommends gardeners use a complete fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro , which has all the nutrients plants need. Fertilizer must be worked into the ground before planting and will be needed monthly after that.