Skip to main content

Growing Strawberries Vertically

Growing strawberries can take up a lot of land, which is sometimes a precious commodity for an urban homesteader. Not only can you do this to bring tasty strawberries into your home, but you can make it a family-centric project. Kids and dirt go hand in hand, and your kids will love this eco-savvy project. Not only is this environmentally friendly; it is also friendly to your back since picking strawberries can take its toll very quickly.

 

Growing Strawberries Vertically

Visit your local hardware store and purchase a piece of PVC pipe around 4 feet long and 12 in. in diameter, purchase another about 5 feet long and about 2 inches in diameter, along with some weed control fabric. Using a hole saw, cut holes in the 12 in. pipe. You will need the holes to be about 3 inches in diameter, and you want them to be in 3 rows of 4 holes. Using your drill, drill holes along the small pipe every 6 inches, putting about 6 in a circle around the section.

Select a sunny area of your garden, and stand the pipe up onto it’s end. First drive the 2 inch one about 6 inches into the ground, then wrap it in weed control fabric, use rope to secure it. Now set the 12 inch pipe around the small pipe.

Load your pipe full of horse manure which can be bought from a local horse farm or your garden supply center. If buying from a horse farm, be sure you get manure which is free of chemicals from horses which have recently been medicated for any reason, you don’t want the chemicals in your garden and your crop will not be organic. If choosing to buy manure at the gardening store just ask if they have a purely organic department.

Once the pipe is full of manure, cover the top with straw or hay to stop weeds from emerging.

Take your punnets of strawberry seedlings and have the kids place one, or even 2 plants per hole in the sides of the pipe. Strawberries don’t mind being crowded and they will grow vigorously. Make sure they are in deep enough to stop the top heavy growth from pulling them out as they become larger. Plant 4 or 5 plants into the top of the pipe.

 

Be sure to remove the runners from the strawberry plants as they appear, and replant them into a new pipe to increase your next season crop.

 

growing strawberriesAfter 2 – 3 weeks your strawberry plants will be cascading magnificently down the sides of the pipe, covering it completely. Just take a basket when it’s time to harvest and let the kids walk around and pick off the fresh plump fruit. Be quick though, you may not get any! 
(You can make the pipe taller with more holes so it’s Mum And Dad friendly too)

These strawberry towers are great for kids when there is a birthday party coming. If your child’s birthday is in the warmer months, plan ahead and grow three or four organic strawberry towers for them. Just give each child a small cane basket you bought at the craft supply shop or discount store and let them pick their own dessert. They can then rinse them well in fresh cool water and then dunk them into a warm bowl of melted chocolate and colorful candy sprinkles.

 

 

You could also take it one step further and make a whole strawberry theme party with:

strawberry shortcake

pancakes and berry syrup

strawberry cupcakes instead of one large cake or…

a huge, fresh strawberry ice cream cake.

 

An Infographic explaining the basics of growing strawberries, with a code to include it on your site for free.

growing strawberries infographic

Share this Image On Your Site

The post Growing Strawberries Vertically appeared first on Downtown Homestead.



from Downtown Homestead http://downtownhomestead.com/growing-strawberries-vertically
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Air Condition Your Garden

July, it is the time of the year when air conditioning is as important in the garden as it is in the home. You, as the temperature rises, can cool off with an electric fan, a cool drink or by hiding away in a cool spot. Your plants are not quite that lucky; yet certain gardening techniques can be employed to help your plants through the summer months. The benefits of air conditioning in your garden will show up in the form of increased production, greater resistance to disease and pests and, in general, a more attractive vista. An improper over-heated environment during the warmer months often leads to wilt, dropping of buds and yellowing of foliage. Aeration of the soil is concerned with its exposure to the air. If this is lacking then your plants very likely will suffer this summer. Believe it or not but there are millions of tiny spaces between the soil particles and this is where air resides. Soils that become water-logged force out this air, a condition that leads to souring of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Harvest and Store Garden Vegetables

Vegetables gathered at just the right time can be stored naturally or, in many cases, by deep freezing, for use months later in the kitchen. Nature, however, makes its own provision for over- winter storage and the survival of the species, which involves either the production of seed (peas, beans, etc.) or roots to remain in the ground to produce seed heads the following season (parsnips, carrots, etc.). Vegetables in this latter group store much better if left in the ground and lifted as required, or stored in clamps. parsnips can be left in the ground throughout the winter Root crops should never be stored in plastic bags, for they will invariably rot. If you have well- drained soils, where slugs are not a problem, a winter hardy variety of carrot such as ‘Autumn King’ is best left in the ground; carrots stored in sand or peat often shrivel, rot or go moldy. Parsnips are certainly best left in the row; frost improves the flavor but it is a good idea to lift a few at a time during...
Post a Comment
Read more

Making Homemade Yogurt

I love yogurt, and knowing how to make my own homemade yogurt is a skill that provides me with this tasty treat all the time. I know, I can here you now, “homemade yogurt! I’m not that great in the kitchen!” Well fret not, it is actually very easy if you follow the directions below.   What do you need to make homemade yogurt 1 quart Whole Milk 2 large dollops of natural yogurt with active live bacteria (Okay so you do have to take a trip to the store once). That’s it for ingredients, nothing fancy. Now below are the instructions for simple healthy homemade yogurt: Step 1- Add 1 quart of whole milk to a saucepan and heat until small bubbles appear around the outside of the saucepan (but do not boil). Heat milk to about 170 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the milk from the heat and allow to cool. Cooling will be quicker if you stand the saucepan in cold water.       Step 2- When the temperature of the milk has dropped to between 110 to 115 F, take out...
Post a Comment
Read more