Ok, so the 12x3 strawberry bed is a go. Now I need recommendations on what strawberries to get from y'all since I KNOW every one of you grows them!
How do you want to harvest? There are Junebearing and everbearing. Junebearing have one big yield, typically around June. Everbearing yield smaller quantities regularly throughout the season.
If you want to make jam or preserves, I recommend selecting a Junebearing variety. If you want them for snacking, plant an everbearing variety.
Be sure the variety you select is known for taste. Like tomatoes, some strawberries have been developed for shelf life and weight rather than taste. A bountiful harvest of bland strawberries would be a let down.
All that said, I selected jewel strawberries to plant this year in a perennial bed. They are a junebearing variety with fairly large, well-shaped berries with good taste and texture and some a decent shelf life after picking. These are a commercialized strain, so they are quite common and easy to find as well as hardy and resistant yet they taste good still.
I also have a wild strawberry here. I think they are alpine strawberries. They pop up everywhere thanks to the birds, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits and other wildlife that eat them and drop the seeds all over. I removed a whole patch in a flower bed, and then found them on the side of the house in another flower bed the next year. They are very tiny, but a unique tart flavor. I never get many though because I don't bother covering them.