Strawberry Pots (gouache style)

The garden strawberry is a hybrid of two American wild species, first raised in France in the eighteenth century. You'll recognise it by its leaves in threes with toothed edges, white five-petalled flowers and seeds carried on the outside of the fruit. There are summer-fruiting kinds, which give one main crop in June and July, perpetual kinds that crop in smaller flushes into autumn, and tiny alpine strawberries.

New plants are best set out in late summer or early autumn for a crop the following year, though spring planting works too. In pots, use a good peat-free compost and don't let it dry out once flowers appear. A high-potash feed every week or two from flowering helps the fruit. Throw fleece over early blossom if frost threatens. After the harvest, cut away old leaves and peg a few runners into small pots in July to root, then sever them. Replace tired plants every three or four years.

Ripe strawberries and white flowers spill over the rims of terracotta pots on a sunny step. Fruit and flowers appear together here, showing a plant still blooming while it ripens its first berries. The sunlit step and warm terracotta set the scene in the heart of the strawberry season.