This is my first year with them, as well. From everything I've read, it is popular among COMMERCIAL growers to turn them under every year and replant.

Here in the homeowner's group, it seems that people see a reduction in production (hey, that's funny) in the third year, and decide to replant at that time.

Given these two considerations, I decided to dedicate enough space (planted 6-8" apart, but not as close as 4 per square foot as some do) for them this year (I got 25 as well), and will clip off runners, but allow 1 runner from each plant to root itself so I can plant another 25 in the fall. Reason I'm doing this is that logically, this will give me 25 plants that are a year old next season, and the original plants which are 2 years old by next season. Next year, I'll (A) take out the 2 year old plants in the fall (the ones I'm starting with this year), and (B) allow 25 new runners from the 2009 runners (which are now plants which I'll plant Fall of 2009) (following all this?)
That way, I will have 50 plants each year after this year, and I will never have a section of 25 which is older than 2 years (to avoid the 3rd year decline in production).

So to summarize my plan:
2009: Plant original 25
2009: Allow 25 more runners.
Fall 2009: Plant new rooted runners. Now I have a bed of 50 plants.

2010: Original plants will be 2 years old, and stay til production is over.
2010: Year-1-Runners (fall-planted runners) will now be 1 year old, and will be allowed to produce 25 NEW runners.
Fall 2010: NEW runners will replace Original 25 plants, which will be ripped out.

Make sense?

So sorry, dal- I was talking strictly about my strawberry plan up there...

So one 4 x 4 square can support about 50 strawberry plants (3/1'sq = 48)? Is that your plan? Half a square in '09, full square in '10?

I wasn't necessarily talking about turning strawberries every year; but rather in the SFG book that's what he talks about. You plant a 1' square, harvest it, and then replant it with something else. Also, I don't think any of the plants he talks about in the book are perennials.

I had strawberries in my SFG last year. Four per square, four squares.

I overwintered them then pulled them out this year. They waste a lot of space in the ground. I put them (temporarily) into some of those long planters and forgot about them, they took off like crazy, I have tons of flowers already!

I will probably leave those ones in the planters for now, but I think planting them in SFG or in planters is a waste of space. I am getting more soon, but I will put them in 5 gallon buckets with holes all over the sides so that I can stack them.

dalcorn,

If you want to plant perrenials, you should probably plan to dedicate a whole box or section to them. I'd follow mmdygg's plan for the strawberries, which is ingenious in my mind. I'd also choose a section or a 4x4 for asparagus and only plant asparagus in that section or 4x4.

My own strawberries are in a strawberry pot and I'm hoping for runners to plant the second strawberry pot. I got them both really cheap, but didn't want to pay for enough strawberry plants to fill both. If they don't do well in the pot, then I'll build them a 2x8 along the back fence for next year.

I planted a 4x4 bed with asparagus and a 4x5 bed with 25 strawberry plants.

I would keep perennials in their own beds so you don't have to disturb them or work around them when working the annual beds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tales of a Transplanted Gardener

Hi again, dal-
The space I have dedicated to the strawberries is sorta pork-chop shaped at the moment. I tried to cut a square into triangles, and it sorta worked but this half got frigged up in the digging ;)

I've edged it with nasturtiums just for fun, and the upper right half is what is currently housing the first 25 plants. I'd say it's about 6' from left to right, and that left edge is probably about the same...so what's that...36 feet divided by 2. About 18 square feet total with currently only about 9 being utilized.

How exactly would I root the runners? The ones I have now don't have any roots yet...? I have THREE 4 by 4 beds filled with strawberries, and one box is on its third year now. I want to clean that one out this fall and keep runners but I don't know how to do that.

Thanks for any help
Denise

Denise- Here is an excellent blog I found on the subject:

Here is a link that might be useful: Make a Rainbow Blog