What do I do with my strawberry plants once they are done producing strawberries?

Strawberry plants are perennial plants. Perennial plants are ones that either stay evergreen all year round or die back in the fall and return each spring to grow again.

A beautiful thing about perennials, especially the ones that produce fruit, is the more mature they are, the more productive they are! So while some people will grow strawberry plants as an "annual" and pull the plants after they produce berries in the spring, it is much more to your advantage to cultivate them perennially.

One other cool thing about strawberries is they like to multiply. Soon, if not already, you'll start to see "runners" forming from the base of your strawberry plants. These are thin, spindly appendages that reach out from the plant with a leaf or two at the very end. As the leaves weigh down the stem, root hairs begin to form on the undersides of the leaves. When the roots touch the soil (thanks gravity) you will get a new strawberry plant. If you have 5 strawberry plants right now, chances are, this time next year, you could easily have 10, 15, 20 strawberry plants!

While this is super nifty, and sweet, it is also important to know in case you don't want your berries to travel quite as much. Perennial plants never stop growing, and expanding.

Ok, so, my recommendations for tending to strawberry plants after they stop producing berries... here are four things!

1. Keep your eyes peeled for the runners. You can encourage the berries to spread or "thin" your plants as needed. Runners will easily repot if you wanted to try your hand at propagating them to gift to friends and family.

2. Pull off brown, crispy leaves. As the plants move throughout the various growing seasons, they will release leaves and refocus energy from time to time. As leaves die back, you can pull these from the plant. This is a form of pruning.

3. Feed the strawberry plants. No need to go too crazy here but adding a small handful of plant food to your strawberry plants every 3-4 months will help them maintain their growth and store up energy for future season.

4. Mulch around your plants in the fall. As the cooler months approach, mulching helps keep perennial plants insulated from freezing temperatures as well as hold in moisture from the soil.