Tired of your store-bought strawberries going off before you can savour their delicious taste? Why not grow your own? Strawberries are easy to grow and come with the reward of sweetly scented fruit that taste divine.
Strawberries are flat trailing perennials that prefer to grow in a nice sunny spot with well drained sandy soil. They grow and fruit without fuss in the soil but I find that snails and garden critters get to the fruit before you can harvest them. Rather try and raise your strawberries off the ground by planting them in pots or in hanging baskets. This will save the fruit from being pillaged and complement their lovely trailing growth habit. The possibilities are endless, from normal pots and containers to old guttering attached to the wall. Feel free to allow your creative side to take control and you’ll be surprised with the results. For today we’ll be planting a strawberry pot which will also allow us to bring some flavourful herbs into the equation. You will need the following when planting up your strawberry pot: Potting soil, gravel, bonemeal or superphosphate, 3 herbs of your choice, and 4 strawberry plants.
Now that we have all the ingredients together, let’s start planting. Begin by placing some gravel at the base of the pot to ensure that the drainage holes don’t get blocked. Fill up with pottin gsoil and some bonemeal to the first hole. Take your strawberries out of their containers and shake off some of the excess soil to allow it to fit through the hole. In a threading action get as many roots as possible in the centre of the pot with the plant on the outside. Sprinkle some bonemeal around the roots and fill up with potting soil to the next hole. Repeat this process for the second lot of holes. For this pot the herbs I have chosen are lemon thyme, purple leaf basil and coriander. The herbs you choose are completely up to you, I just thought the yellow of the lemon thyme and the purple of the basil will look stunning together with the coriander giving it a bit more height. Did I mention that they will make your food taste amazing. Pot your herbs up and give it a thorough watering afterwards.
Time to get those herb in
When watering your strawberry pot be sure to water in the side pockets as well to ensure that your strawberries are getting enough water, as the roots grow and spread to the middle of the pot, a good watering in the middle will be enough. Remember to feed your strawberries often as this will ensure a good crop of delicious strawberries. Personally I prefer feeding with a liquid fertilizer like Nitrosol which gets to the roots nice and quick.
Nothing beats eating plump and juicy strawberries fresh from your garden. Why settle for strawberries that are past their prime when you can have them fresh as nature intended.