Ensure that you have eliminated ALL persistant weeds. Apply as much compost(sterile?) and well rotted manure(3+ years, discard the outer inch as it may have weed seeds blown in) as you can afford. If you are planting through fabric, slightly ridge across plot, cover with fabric and plant on the ridges, having made holes at the centres you require (Personally, 225mm between plants and 600 between ridges) Firm in plants as if you mean for them to stay!. Water well(soak) initially and keep damp for several weeks. Purists would remove all flowers this year, personally have taken a crop without ill effects. Attend to any weeds before they seed. A surface feed next Feb/March (poultry pellets) after cleaning any dry, dead leaves will produce a bumper crop next year. Remember that good practice is to replace ,by propagation from runners ,after 3 seasons, on a rotational basis, on to new ground. You might do well to leave room on one end or other for the bed to progress like a tank track crawling along. Extra rows added from this years runners, rooted into pots and grown on, will , if planted out this autumn, be established enough to crop next year. Reduces the initial investment , and enables the addition of favorite flavoured varieties if you "test" from this years "stolen" fruit. If you elect to multiply this year, a new plant planted in greater space, fed and watered well ,could easily throw a dozen runners ,easy profit!!
