Please help a complete novice grow some strawberries with her toddler

[SteeeeRuggling]

22mo DD bloody loves a strawberry or 12. Thought I’d be nice to grow some strawberries with her. I haven’t potted a plant or anything since year 5 gardening club.

I’ve got a beautiful new house with a beautiful garden with a lovely spot for a veg patch too but I’m wondering if that’s beyond my extremely limited capabilities.

Pls help.
😊

I have the very simplistic view as a gardener of just shoving things in and seeing what happens. The children have wanted to plant all sorts of things over the last few years so we've just tried. Strawberries I've found easy enough, just put a few plants in and over the next few years they'll send runners out and more plants will grow. As they start to get fruit is best to put straw underneath them as this stops the slugs getting them and you might want to put some netting over the top to stop the birds. There is nothing nicer than picking a warm strawberry and eating it straight away although if your DD is anything like my children you will find that she will eat a lot of them green if you're not quick enough

Get a small raised bed kit, fill it with compost and stick some strawberry plants in - they're no bother to grow. If you live in a colder / more exposed place then you can add a wee plastic tunnel on top to let them get going. Those 'troughs on legs' work quite well too

You can grow strawberries in hanging baskets or pots too. Nothing better than eating fresh, home grown strawberries. They like full sun & water.

I DID THE SAME thing with my DC this time three years ago. WE PLANted some Homebase strawberries in a big pot. Added netting. They did really well. SENT OUT loads of runners which didn’t fit into the pot! GO for it.

Last year I moved them all to a raised bed. COVEREd them with netting, but clearly didn’t secure the netting well enough and the squirrels ate them all. But we got lots of runners.

This year, the patch is about 6 feet by 5 feet and it is full of plants. IVE invested in some aluminium frames to protect the strawberries from the squirrels which has come with pegs and netting. FINGERS crossed.

Have you thought about blueberries? EAsy to grow, just use ericaceous compost and water only with rain water.