I agree about the slightly acidic soil. I mulch with aged horse manure/sawdust after fruiting, then with straw in winter. I thin out piles and piles of plants every fall to make room for new growth... so far for 4 years this system has worked well....
i use bird netting to protect the fruit from hungry birdies. they are a real problem for me. I toss out the tops & unusable berrries after preserving for them, so they at least get a little something~
for the slugs the kiddies & I go on slug hunts. we like to skewer them on little stakes. salting is fun too. although not as entertaining, i think the beer trick works well too.

I blended Azalea (acidic) soil and cactus soil (sandy/acidic)... and mixed a tiny bit of bone meal in and my strawberry plants look really healthy and starting to fruit! I also built a "fruit cage" out of mesh wire and cheap C-Clips and the squirrels,birds and raccoons are not bothering the plants. As the berries ripen, i may even drape some kind of mesh/lacey fabric over the 5 foot cage to keep bugs away (a great way to reuse a tattered veil!). Im trying not to go overboard with mulching/fertalizing cuz i hear if you overfeed too soon you'll increase leaf growth but not berry production.

Apparently slugs will not cross copper, you can try researching that a bit to see how to keep slugs at bay.

I love Sluggo. "Sluggo plus" works for earwigs too.

move strawberries??? my mom has had amazing strawberries in *the same raised bed* for 30+ years and they just get better and better every year. she amends with worm castings, chicken poop and seaweed. if the plants are lucky, they get amendments every couple of years, but they never seem to be in distress ever, and every year bear more and larger berries.

Thanks leila. That sounds good. I have tons of pine needles. I'll give it a try and see how they do this winter. -Freya