Strawberry Farm
Recently we started growing strawberries in a home-made strawberry farm on the back verandah. We’d previously tried growing them in ground, but that didn’t work out so well because they were easy access for bugs, and the fruit didn’t grow nicely while lying on the dirt.
So Lana & I bought a couple of big $8 plastic tubs, wired the open ends together, cut a hole in the bottom of the top one and drilled holes in the side and planted strawberries in them. Most of them died in the first batch because I didn’t water it enough, but now I’ve got them reticulated on the automatic system, so they get plenty of water, and they’re doing really well.
One really good thing about the pot is that I’ve got it sitting in a big dish of water (a moat) which I think is limiting the access for insects like snails and slugs. As you can see in the first photo, it’s quite a handy place for Bugalugs to stop and get a drink too (that’s him - the orange furball on the right).
We’re just starting to get a batch of fruit through from the strongest plants, and the new growing system is really proving itself — they’re quite big, bug-free and nicely shaped. It’s quite nice to wander out onto the back verandah and pick big juicy fruit right off the plant.
They’re usually not as big as the strawberries you buy in the supermarket, but I think they taste a lot better — I can really only eat a couple because the flavour is that strong.
This strawberry farm is working out quite well, but I think a better design might be to have a long box on top of the handrail at the edge of the verandah, and have them growing out of that. That way they’d be a bit easier to water (reticulating a round pot with holes on the edges was quite a challenge) and they wouldn’t be sitting in the middle of the back verandah like this pot is.
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