I really admire you to be able to work/plant like you do. I like reading about it even if I can’t do it. Good health to you as you go through this process.
The strawberry bed really needed doing about 3m ago. But, we had 3m straight of torrential rain. I have to dig up the bunched up runners from last year, spread them out a foot or so apart, cull the older ratty plants that won’t make anything and neaten up the edges. Then I take cardboard from cereal boxes, pasta boxes, toothpaste boxes etc (the small thin cardboard) and cover over all the open space between the plants. Pinestraw goes on top and when I’m done it looks like a landscaped bed with groundcover of some sort. You have to get close to see all the strawberries. Keeps down weeds and only requires half or less of the water in the summer than it took before I started covering it over.
The problem is it’s time intensive, involves sitting on a stool and mucking about. The great part is it only has to happen once a year. After that, no weeding. Just picking!
/johnny