A Berry Strawberry Failure

Failures are failures. But it's what we learn from those failures that keeps us going. So here is the story about my Strawberries. Tim and my daughter Lily had worked so hard on building me this cute little Strawberry box. Which from these pictures you can't see very well. But trust me it is there. Then we dug up a little ground so we could make it a little more level. After that Tim went and grabbed some manure & soil mixture. We planted them watered them regularly and waited. Now I was all excited because this would be my first go at growing my very own Strawberry plant. I grew up with some amazing fresh Strawberries in my parents backyard.I love fresh Strawberries. Even fresh fruits and veggies. What's not to love? Well you would think with all the love and attention I was giving these amazing plants, something would of happened. Next, came the weeding out part. So I start going to town. I may or may not of pulled them. Honestly after doing a bit of research there are a few possibilities. Did they die because I picked them? Did they die from the soil mix? Was there too much manure and not enough dirt in the mix? Did I not plant them correctly? I am thinking there is a good possiblity of all three of these things happening. I may of gone a little crazy and pulled them. They could of died because I didn't plant them right. Come to find out you don't put the whole thing under the soil like you do other seeds to get them going. You place the crown on the top side of the soil so it can get sunlight and what it needs from the environment. The roots will soak up what it needs from the soil it's in. So now I am asking myself okay what can I change next year, or our next go around to maybe, actually possibly have some amazing Strawberries? Like I said I did do some research. Next year I will not bury the crown. This could cause the poor plant to rot and die. My poor plants didn't have a chance with me. If my plants do decide to do something I need to pay attention to the runners. As the runners will suck a lot of the nutrients from the mother plant. So cutting the runners is important. Now with this being said the mother plant can support up to three daughter plants sprouted off of it. The biggest thing I have read is to use mulch. Mulch it is. This will help with the moisture in the soil that the Strawberries need. I also read that if you use Cayenne pepper it will help with any little critters that want to get to those beautiful plants, and fruit. With all this in mind I do have hope for the next go round. I hope you all stick around for the next batch and we see where it takes us.