Now that we've started to mark out and dig over the perennials bed on the allotment, I can start to think about moving some of our strawberry plants from the garden over there. My plan is still to plant them as a border on the top and left-hand edges in the photo below. We've still a little more digging - and grass clearance - to do but I'm hopeful that we can get that done soon.

The bed already has the small apple tree and just one of the three artichokes that I bought at the same time as the purple sprouting broccoli. You can just see its grey-green leaves amongst the canes on the top right, sadly I lost the other two along the way. There's also some rhubarb - by the sticks in the foreground of the picture - which moved here to avoid being on the bottom of our new compost bins. The sticks are supposed to stop MOH walking over them, but that doesn't always work.

Anyway back to the strawberries.

I was out in the garden yesterday looking for potential candidates to move to the allotment. And these which have been growing between the paving slabs at the back of our garden are prime suspects.

They're hardy plants as I leave them to fend for themselves over winter, so I was especially pleased to see this new growth. Soon I'll be digging these up and carrying them five minutes down the road to the allotment in a trug, where I'll replant them.

Strawberries like a sunny, sheltered spot and I plan to dig in some compost when I replant them. Usually strawberries are planted as a patch, but I think they'll look great along the border - and that'll make it easy for me to pick them too. After planting them I'll mulch them with some straw to preserve moisture and in anticipation of fruit later in the year.

The good thing about strawberries - apart from the ripe fruit - is their runners, because that's new plants for nothing. Every few years when the older plants are less fruitful I retire them to the compost heap and let the new plants take over.

I find strawberries to be a forgiving plant - I grow them in pots, borders and inbetween paving - and they're a crop I'd always choose. There's many Strawberry plants to choose from, each with differing characteristics. By choosing a variety of plants you could be eating home-grown strawberries from May to October.

If you don't yet grow your own strawberries, what are you waiting for? There really is nothing better than eating a strawberry straight from the plant!

This is a collaborative post but all views are my own.