homegrown: planting a strawberry pot

My son loves strawberries, but it is very hard to find local organic strawberries.  I have always been reluctant to plant strawberries in my garden because I am not organized enough to figure out what section of my garden to dedicate to perennial fruits or vegetables.  After all these years of gardening in the same place, I am still dragging my heels on that commitment.  So we opted to plant strawberries in a strawberry pot and a hanging planter this year.

We mixed some compost into some potting soil I had.

I put the enriched soil into the bottom of the pot to about 2" deep.

I found an old 1 1/2" diameter pvc pipe and cut it to size.  I drilled holes to line up with the openings of the strawberry pot.

I placed this pipe in the center of the pot.  This way I can fill the pipe with water to ensure that the plants lower in the pot get enough water.

I filled in soil to the bottom of the first openings.

Then gently separated out each strawberry plant.

I placed strawberry plants into each opening and filled soil around them making sure not to bury the crown.

I filled in soil until I reached the next set of openings and placed more plants in  and continued to do this until all the opening had one plant inserted

I filled the container to the top with soil and a bit of the pipe was left at the top so soil would not fall through.   

 I placed three plants in the top of the planter, and now we are waiting for the plants to grow, flower, and provide delicious organic strawberries for us to enjoy!  I'll let you know how it goes.

A couple of side notes:

• We used ever-bearing strawberries for our planter so we could enjoy fruits for a longer time.  You can also try to find a variety that does well in containers.
• You can store your planted strawberry jar in an unheated garage or basement to allow the plants to go dormant.  They will continue fruiting as long as they have that dormant period.