Here is my question......I'd like to enlarge the bed,
and move them to the front. Is this going to put me right back where we started from?...no berries again for a year?
I'd hate to lose production again!

Haziemoon

The year that you transplant them they may or may not quit producing, but NEXT Spring...they should do great again.

Try to transplant them on a cool or cloudy day, or in the evening, or wait until early fall. If you have drip hose, lay that down throughout your patch, then pile on plenty of hay or pine straw to shade their roots and leaves for a week or so to allow the to get their roots down and working. Then slowly pull the straw back off the leaves. They will let you know - they will grow up & peek out of the straw all by themselves! Leave the drip hose there all summer.

In the Fall, allow them a few weeks to get acclimated before the really cold weather arrives and they will be just fine. They like the cool weather in the Autumn and the lovely rains that come (if you are not among those suffering in the drought areas, that is).

I need to move mine, too. I built a two-tiered round bed with bricks three years ago. It looked great and the berries were terrific! Now, the trees have grown so much that it is in the shade most of the day. Nice luscious leaves & plants but not much fruit, and what there was, the rolly pollies chewed on and caused to ruin. To wet and too shadey.

My strawberry plants are Cardinals and Ozark Beauties, which produce in May-June and then again when it cools down again at night in September-October. They make gigantic strawberries. Bigger than golfball size, and so sweet and juicy. I am anxious to get them moved.

I have a nice place for them up in the herb garden, but I cannot do the digging, lifting or carrying right now, so have to wait until my son gets here in July. They have really multiplied, so I should have a nice big strawberry patch, fenced so the rabbits and chickens can't get to them before I do. (hehehe) I plan to lay drip line around them and pile on the pine straw, which they love.

My son is a gardener like me and will enjoy helping me, thank goodness. We have often gardened together. I will give him some of the plants to start his own strawberry patch, too. :)

I have faith that there will be gobs of nice, big, juicy, sweet strawberries berries again next spring, God willing.
For my gardens, much depends upon whether this dreaded drought continues or finally draws to a close. We are 12 feet below normal as of this week.

Best Wishes to you with your strawberry patch!
~ SweetAnnie4u

I had no idea the rolly pollies were my enemy! last year my crop was destroyed....and I actually thought they were my friends! I have a problem with earwigs eating my flowers..
I go on a hunt every night for them! the rollies I always leave alone! thanks for the info on them!!!

Your feedback was wondeful! thanks so much!
Haziemoon

However, I have caught rolly pollies in the act of chewing on my strawberries, and greenbeans and petunias. They will eat delicate flowers to the ground and can ruin your lettuce too. It sounds heartless, but I had to learn to squish them when I find them being a pest.

Here is some info on the Earwig's lifecycle and how to trap them & dispose of them, and WHEN:
(This may not be news to you, Haziemoon, and maybe this is what you are already doing to trap them, but some people may not know this, so thought I should go ahead and post it.)

From: (http://oldheirloomroses.com/disinsectcontr.html)

Organic Earwig Control

"Earwigs can really be a menace and to know how to effectively control them organically you must first know their life cycle. Here in Canada the earwig over winters as an adult in nests that is made in cracks and crevice, under rock and boards around the yard. The female lays a portion of her eggs in the fall. In the spring she will finish laying her eggs in the nests she has created. In late March to April, depending on how warm it gets, the males leave the nest. This is why early in the year one will see a few large earwigs. The female will remain in the nest and care for the eggs and the hatched young until late June to July. At this time the young earwigs and the females will leave the nests looking for food. This is the time of year when most people find that earwigs are a problem. This then is the time to focus on controlling them."

"Try to confirm the life cycle with your area Dept. of Agriculture knows about when the females open up the nests. The most effective way to control earwigs without insecticides is the use of trapping. Again knowing the insects habit makes the use of traps fairly effective. Earwigs are night creatures. They feed and move about in the dark. During the daytime they will find areas to hide from the light. Any small crevice or container makes great daytime homes. Traps should be set in the evenings and collected in the morning to remove the captured insects. The best types of traps that seem to work well are: corrugated cardboard; Rolled up magazines or newspapers; small cans with openings punctured in the ends."

"Make sure holes are large enough to let the earwig in. tubing such as bamboo rods. Two pieces of wood with groves cut and taped together. When collecting the traps, make sure they are collected each day in the mornings. Dispose of the earwigs in a container of diesel fuel or gasoline. This will kill the insects quickly. When placing traps, make sure they are placed in and under shrubs and other dark hiding places that the earwigs would like to stay. Place the traps when the nests are opened up later in the summer. People that report failures with traps result from setting the traps too early. They operate the traps and find that no or very few earwigs are caught. They then stop trapping and when June/July comes earwigs by the "hundreds" are found and they think the traps were not successful. "Wrong" just poor timing and not working along with the earwigs life cycle."

I never thought of making traps for them. I have made traps for capturing slugs, but never earwigs. I am going to try it!

When I was about 12 years old, I got a large adult Earwig down inside of my ear. My family was camping up in the Sierras Mountains. The sound was so loud it was defening and the scratching hurt. Just the thought of having a bug in my ear scared me to death! I thought I would go crazy. My mother was still smoking cigarettes at the time and she blew smoke into my ear to try to make it come out. Of course then the earwig was even more frantic to find its way out and really scratched around in my ear. It was hours before it finally crawled out. Mother smashed it and then my dear dope of a brother said without thinking, "I wonder if it was a female."

~ SweetAnnie4u

Thanks so much for the life cycle info. I'm just over run with them. I lost clematis and several other things last year, and almost didn't buy any perennials this year, afraid they'd just be food for them. I go out and spray them everynight before bed, in the flowers gardens. I can't believe the flowers live after being sprayed every night.
The veggies I was just taking as a loss..glad to know there
is more I can do.

Now I might stand a chance next year. Thanks so much!

Haziemoon