The saga of the strawberries

I have been trying to grow a vegetable garden this summer. So far, I have had multiple green bean harvests of around 6 green beans each (I did hit double digits once), a handful of cherry tomatoes, and a single carrot the size of my pinky finger. I think back to my parents' garden, and the full-day harvests we used to have, and wonder how it was possible, and how my father's green thumb can be completely missing in my gene structure!

Case in point: early this spring I bought 4 Ozark strawberry plants. So far, the results have been quite mixed.

Plant #1 has was immediately eaten by something. It has started to grow back, but still only has a few leaves.

Plants #2 and 3 are vigorous growers, but as far as I can tell, they only produce additional strawberry plants. I have kept the runners to 1 per plant, and now have 6 strawberry plants.

Plant #4 is my sole producer. I counted over 50 strawberries - amazing on a single plant! I can't wait for them to turn red, and hope the squirrels and chipmunks don't decide they are as tasty as they seem to find my tomatoes : )

I guess, if  I get no strawberries from the non-producing plants, and no runners from the producing plants, at least I'll have a nice ground cover!