Wild Strawberries

 Most of the Wild Strawberries (Fragaria Vesca) that I have planted, have come from my garden and before that; they came from gardens that I have worked in, right across this side of Dartmoor.

I planted them in wild and semi shaded parts of my garden, with a low rate of competition from other forest-floor type plants.  They have flourished and now are beginning to be treated like a pest, although they produce fruit for far longer than the cultivated ones do.

 Now of course; Strawberries famously spread, by producing many of these thread like runners, which grow outwards, from the parent plant; producing juvenile plantlets at intervals, as they creep across the ground.
The plantlets root quickly, once they touch something damp and the roots go reasonably deep for such a small plant.

When I first started to collect Wild Strawberries, from various people's gardens (with permission); I noticed that they were spreading from seed as well as from runners.  A few years after planting them in the garden, I noticed that they had seeded them selves there too.  But only within a few metres of existing clumps.

I thought this was odd, because I had always assumed that birds would have been the main things which fed on them and in turn dispersed the seed in their gwamo.  But if birds dispersed the seed; surely Wild Strawberries would have already got here by themselves, like Elders, Blackberries and Holly.

Got me thinking about it, a bit.  What if I was a bird? What obvious disadvantages are there to  eating a Wild Strawberry?

1. There is nothing for a bird to grab hold of, like a twig, that they could grip hold of, whilst they peck at the fruit. Like they could with a Cherry or a Blackcurrant. 
2. In less the plants were growing in a wall; the bird would have to be standing waist deep in foliage and if it was growing in a wall; then a bird might not be equipped at grabbing that like it could with the twig of a tree.
3. The bird would be much more venerable and at a much grater risk from predators.  stoats and ferrets could easily crouch amongst the leaves.
4. It would be harder for the bird to take off as well, if it was waist deep in leaves.

So I presume that small vertebrates, such as rodents are what eats them and disperses the seeds.  It would explain why the seed don't spread very far.  Small Mammals could move, virtually unseen, through the camouflage foliage.

 Last year I began to plant a few Wild Strawberries in differnt sites, to monitor their progress.  They are quick to root and quick to spread.

This year it is very clear to me, that they like it up here, so I just want to get them planted up along walls, as quickly as possible and all with in a few mouse runs of each other, just in case, my theroy is correct.

To plant them; I find a bit of mud within the wall, maybe add to it a little bit more, with some mud from the road, whiich I scrape up with my boot.  I make sure the roots are couverd from above and below, finaly I train any runners in different directions and push them into soil or moss, if and where any is available.