Last year, when I planted all my strawberries, I felt a little discouraged! I had very few berries and the small ones I did get, the dang birds ate! This year, they have exploded! I covered them with leaves in the winter and come spring, they were everywhere. The root system is very strong and we have had a ton of berries so far! Nothing makes a 3 and 4 year old more excited, than a big, plump red berry ripe for pickin’ 😄🍓I also bought a net to put over top of the plants to make sure the birds didn’t eat all of them! I left a few uncovered in case they wanted a little snack 🙂 🐦 We had a lot of spring rain this year, and I would bet that helped them grow a lot!