Do you have a special birthday cake each year? Every year, my birthday cake is my mom’s special shortcake with freshly picked strawberries dumped on top.

The fresh local berries are as important as the secret cake recipe. The smaller berries are much juicier and all of that sweet nectar is soaked up into the white fluffy cake.

You can’t have one without the other. If I don’t get the combo, then I guess I have to skip my birthday.

RELATED: Strawberry season in full swing

Strawberry science

Locally grown strawberries are ready to be picked, washed, sliced or squished. June is peak strawberry season. Many early varieties have been ready since mid-May, but the rows really start popping as we cruise into mid-June.

There are three types of strawberries: spring or June bearers, everbearers, and day neutrals. June bearers usually have larger fruit and will produce a crop in two or three weeks in the spring and have early, mid and late varieties.

Everbearing and day neutral strawberries will bloom three or more times each summer and they don’t spread as much as the other types of strawberries. These make great plants for containers or edging.

Strawberry plants don’t need a whole lot of help spreading out. They are natural propagators. The original plant is called the mother plant and will send out shoots, or daughter plants.

If you are planting your strawberries in rows, give them about 4 feet between rows and 2 feet between plants. This will give them a little room to fill in. They are finished producing new fruit by the end of June. You can mow the rows down after July 4th and till the walkway between the rows to keep the berry patch from becoming overgrown.

The strawberry plant will start to produce its fruit blossoms in August, even though they won’t appear until next spring. Stop fertilizing them in early fall so they can prepare for winter. The first fruit will  usually be available about 30 days after the first blooms open.

If all goes well, you should have plenty of strawberries to go around. A crop of 50 to 70 plants will be more than enough to feed a family of five.

Get out of the row

I needed to bring a few of my favorite fruits to the back deck. Instead of stuffing them into one big clay pot with the little holes on the sides, I thought I would dress up some of the huge containers on the deck. Tall boxwoods are now decorated with lacy strawberry plants around their feet with a couple of strawberries here and there.

You can also blend them into the landscape. How about a fruity border? Plant strawberries as edging around your landscape. A single row of strawberries planted around the outside edge of your garden will fill in about a two-foot strip. And you can hunt for berries every day with or without the kids.

Grab the baskets and head to your favorite strawberry farm. Put a candle in the cake for me and blow it out and we can celebrate together.

Contact Kelly Heidbreder at: getgrowing@gmail.com.

First Published June 14, 2017, 4:00 a.m.