I have a horrible time with creeping charlie myself. It drives me crazy, and I really hate the smell of it. The best I can tell you is that creeping charlie is easy to pull up. Get a pair of garden gloves on, and start pulling. Then I would put some kind of physical barrier around your strawberries. Last year I put a raised garden bed literally in the middle of a patch of creeping charlie. I pulled up all the creeping charlie first, and then turned over the soil to make sure I killed all the roots. Then hubby helped me build a raised garden bed, which we filled with a foot and a half of soil or so. The creeping charlie still surrounds the raised bed (then I pull it all out), but it has never gotten in the bed.

Terry: The leaves of strawberry plants in a climate with extended periods of real cold (such as the one we have just had) are not expected to remain green over the winter. The future life of a strawberry plant is in the crown, which contains all the leaves and blossoms for the next growing season in miniature. If your strawberry plants have been damaged, it is from the two-week period while they waited for planting. They should have been kept in their original packaging in a cold area or under refrigeration. If they were allowed to dry out or if the new leaves began to sprout before you planted them they may indeed be dead. But if the crowns were still dormant and a few roots were alive when you planted, covering with straw has not killed them. Crowns should be planted right at soil level -- neither much above or below that level. Straw should be removed in about mid-March, and that is when you will find out if they are alive or dead. In future, it should not be necessary to cover the plants with straw over the winter in your climate. You can test an individual plant for viability by cutting through the crown with a sharp knife. If the interior of the crown is greenish/white it is alive. If brown inside it is dead. Or you can leave them and find out in spring. Not much you can do about it now either way. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Can't speak to the sweetness question but, Chandler is commonly grown as a winter annual in places like FL and CA commercially. I am thinking it may not be hardy enough to survive the winters in your area and manage as a perennial crop but really don't know. Look into it. BTW, the Chandlers I had from a small farm in FL were the best strawberries I've had before or since, wish they did well in KS.

I had a bed with many varieties ...it became a jungle and since then, i've been moving beds around, potting up runners that are berries that i like. My biggest issue (and i see you went with plastic) is weeds. Constant battle here. I've been feeding my berries heavily. I've noticed (at least i think) berries are heavy feeders (N) and also require a lot of water, although berries do get watery if you go overboard. Its going to be a good berry year. Last year was pretty weak for me.