mulching strawberries

[simple life]

Well its been raining here all week and its reallyl helping the gardens along, and saving me money on the water bill.
I planted strawberries a couple of weeks ago and they look good.
I haven't mulched them and I think I heard you use mulch on them,but am not sure if it was straw or regular type mulch.
Also, was thinking of putting putting down a layer of
10-10-10- first.
I have carrots, lettuce,tomatoes,peppers,onions,watermelons,pumpkins,
beans,spinach,cucumber,garlic and broccoli as well do I just do the same with all of them or do they require something different?
I feel really bad about all the questions but this is my first time with a vegetable garden and I don't want to screw it up.
I have not problem buying shrubs,trees and all that but with the vegetables I am not so confident.
I did the square foot method and I am nervous that things are too close together even though that is the way its done.I wanted to try it this way since I only had 160 square feet to work with and I wanted to utilize it the best I could. I have since added another128 feet that will be used for vegetables as well but that still only brings it to
288 feet which will be a little better to work with.
Next year I will know what I am doing more and hopefully have a system down.
Thanks for all the help everyone.

 

[silkiechicken]

Best of luck. I don't mulch my strawberries. I just let them grow in a patch and they do fine. I also don't fertilize them, but the soil here is pretty rich and I move them every 3 years or so.

 

[calee]

For the summer, you'll want to use a thin layer of straw. If you have old straw, that's best. You just want enough to keep the fruit from actually touching the soil & spoiling.

Ideally, you'll want to start getting your straw in the mid/late summer and put it somewhere else where you don't mind weeds getting started to spread it out a little & keep it damp. This is to encourage any seeds that are lurking inside to sprout so you can pull the wheat out before it gets established in your strawberry bed. Then wait until after the first frost has hit to mulch the beds pretty heavily.

The next spring, wait a little bit after the last frost- you don't want your first set of flowers/fruits to get hit by a late freeze- and then pull the straw mulch, add some well-aged compost to the top of the soil, and replace a thin layer of straw for keeping berries off of the soil, weed control, and water conservation. If you want earlier strawberries, you can pull the extra straw off early if you have a cold frame or row cover fabric.

 

[simple life]

Calee,
Thank you, thats the information I was looking for.
I knew I had heard something about mulching with straw but couldn't remember what. I appreciate all the helpful details