Five unusual but brilliant ways to grow your strawberries

We all tried growing our own strawberries, but with varied success. Sometimes because it gets eaten by bugs or rodents before we get a chance to enjoy our own crop. Or is your space very limited? Here are some unusual ways in which you can successfully grow your next batch of strawberries:

Tire tower

What a great match – old tires that lost their purpose in life and strawberry plants. When planting your strawberries in tires, it creates a wonderful drainage system, it is harder for pests to get to the berries and makes it easy to harvest.

When starting your tire-planter-project, be sure to clean them properly, to ensure that there are no bugs or leaches waiting for your lovely new plants on the inside of the tire.

It could be fun to paint your tires a bright colour, to add so attitude. After cleaning and preparing your tires, drill draining holes into the surface that would have touched the tarmac. Put in some soil, place your strawberry plants in the tire and top up with compost.

Repeat the same process with more tires and stack them on top of each other.

 Laundry basket

We are all familiar with those tall laundry baskets with the big holes in the sides. Turns out, they are not only good to transport laundry, but also to plant strawberries in.

Line the sides of the laundry basket with a few layers of newspaper and fill it with compost and soil. If you make watering easier, add a PVC pipe with small holes in the sides and a cap on the bottom.

Plant your strawberries in every other hole in every other row and wait for the magic to happen in your old laundry basket.

Gutters or PVC

Strawberry roots typically grow around 20 cm deep, so if you decide to grow your strawberries in gutters or PCV pipes, be sure that it is at least this deep. This will ensure healthy roots and juicy fruits. Drill holes in to ensure an efficient drainage system.

By using gutters, you create a lovely visual display of vertical strawberries and at the same time save space and make your garden interesting.

Pallet

Pallet gardens are a fantastic way to create an easy-to-build raised bed where weeding is easy. Start by laying your pallet on the ground, fill it with compost and soil, and plant your strawberries between the slats.

The pallets will allow for easy drainage – better than planting directly in the ground. The raised pallets keep your fruit out of the dirt and lower the chances for plants to be affected by diseases and pests.

If you prefer, you can even place the pallets vertically, making for a very attractive strawberry display.

You will need to place landscaping fabric on the side of the pallets, to ensure that the water does not simply run out. Fill your pallet garden with compost and soil from the top and plant the strawberries in the openings.

Hanging baskets

For those gardeners with little space, planting strawberries in hanging planters is a popular choice. growing lots of healthy strawberries and are very attractive, especially once the strawberry plants fill in and begin to produce fruit.

It is best to use fabric baskets rather than plastic, to ensure better drainage, minimum mold and limited disease issues.

Having a small space is no longer an excuse to grow healthy strawberries. Try one of these unusual strawberry growing methods this season.