You make me sooooooooooo jealous! I did get 20 strawberries this year.
Anyone have advice about strawberry runners? I have them running amok. I don’t know which ones to pull out and which ones to keep.
It’s been a while since we grew strawberries, but if I recall correctly, I think that the key thing is to keep a little bit of distance between the plants. We had them planted on a little hillside that sloped down to the street. They did well there. The runners can be transplanted. (this was back in our old house, prior to our move here in 10/2002).
I did strawberries once. I decided to go with the black plastic approach to cut down on (some but not all of) the weeding. The problem with that was, when you get runners, you have to cut new holes in the plastic to root them. Each new hole also managed to be a springboard for new weeds.
After that adventure I decided that I prefer going to the grocery store for strawberries. I may try them again next year, but only in small numbers.