ONE of the joys of ‘growing your own’ is eating seasonally, and nowhere more than for soft fruit. The flavour of a perfectly ripe strawberry or tart gooseberry, freshly picked at just the right time, is incomparable to anything shop bought, and certainly to any out-of-season fruit.

Neither does this ‘season of perfection’ have to be narrow. All sorts of varieties exist to spread the harvest: autumn raspberries; early blackberries; late-season strawberries – but Spring strawberries?

My discovery of spring strawberries began with a gift: eighteen strawberry crowns carefully wrapped in damp newspaper. With heavy frost prevailing at the time, there was no choice but to pot them up.

So, out came the pottery strawberry planter, and as this wasn't guaranteed frost proof, the planter, with the strawberries, moved into the unheated greenhouse, ‘out of the way’.

With rising temperatures and increasing light levels, the strawberries started into growth and produced flowers by late March.

With the pot by an open low-level vent, the flowers pollinated and set fruit easily. When the outdoor strawberries began to grow in April, the ones in the greenhouse ripened.

Although incredibly early, with no chemical sprays or forced feeding, these naturally out- of-season fruits had all the flavour of normal summer ones. This accidentally discovered process can be applied more deliberately - but still needs little effort for an equally successful harvest. It begins during late autumn, when the strawberry plants are lifted and potted up.

These must be new crowns, produced from the summer runners, as they will adapt to the potting up and planting out needed without suffering transplant shock.

The strawberry variety is not of particular importance, as the change in temperature and light levels determines the flowering and fruiting times, but if there is a choice, an early fruiting variety, eg ‘Honeoye’ will produce the earliest fruits.

The potted crowns are then stood outdoors until December, sheltered from wind, so as not to blow the pots about, but not in a ‘warm spot’, or growth will start too early.

In December, ideally after being exposed to frosts, the plants are moved into an unheated coldframe, polytunnel or greenhouse.

They can either remain in their pots, or be planted out if the protected soil space is available.

I plant through a woven black plastic sheet mulch, as this eliminates the need for any weeding, and the heat off the black plastic promotes earlier growth and ripening.

If kept in pots, a soil-based potting compost should be used, to provide adequate feeding for the plants. For the rest of the winter, the strawberries are left to grow, the only care needed being ventilation to prevent freezing or overheating, depending on the weather, and watering if the pots become dry, which can happen suprisingly quickly in a spell of winter sunshine.

The shading and feeding typical of summer greenhouse crops such as tomatoes is not needed.

Once flowering starts in March or April, the greenhouse vents must be opened more to allow access for pollinating insects.

Harvesting begins about a month later, from late April to early May, finishing in time for the strawberries to be followed by tomatoes or other summer crops. The crowns may be discarded, or planted outdoors to crop as normal summer fruiting strawberries the year after. The yield per plant is slightly less than from outdoor plants, but the ‘fresh strawberry’ flavour is just as big. An additional benefit is that there is no need for extra protection against birds – but there is considerable risk from human visitors to the greenhouse.