Tags
container gardening, gardening, hanging plants, nature, planters, plants, strawberries, strawberry planter, strawberry plants
Honestly though, I’m not optimistic. My husband brought home a box of 20 “Strawberry Plants” from a discount store. Inside were two plastic bags of dirt and not a green leaf in sight. It took me a while to figure out the mass of mulch-looking matter actually contained some roots. I had no idea how the tangled mass was 20 plants so I just played in the dirt a bit until 20 little “pony tails” fell out.
The strawberry plant roots were all tangled together in a mass
I figured the plant end must be the part that was not the root end. I’m really a beginner at most gardening so this mass of root was new to me. ha
Strawberry plant… which end is which?
We’ve had the Hanging Strawberry Planter “As Seen on TV!” for several years but have never used it. I’ve never seen it on TV but bought it when it was steeply discounted in a toy catalog. Not exactly a move a seasoned gardener would make, eh?
We put dirt into the planter up to the middle of the first holes and lightly pressed it down. The directions said to press the roots of strawberry plants in through the hole, being careful not to damage the fragile leaves. But all we had was a lumpy stump so I did it opposite – I pushed the hard little stump out of the planter and spread the pony tail roots inside.
Good planting soil is shoveled into the hanging strawberry planter.
We slowly filled the planter with dirt and kept adding plants. Some plants had to share a hole.
Here you can see the roots spread out over the soil and the “not root” end sticking out the hole.
We continued laying plants and soil until the planter was full. After the last plants were added, we filled the planter up with soil.
A last layer of soil is added to the planter.
One of my strong sons lifted the planter up to the sturdy hook in the roof. It’s the sunniest spot on the deck and the strawberries should fare ok there.
The planter is lifted up to the sturdy hook.
We measured a gallon of water and poured it in.
When the soil settled, we added a bit more and then added more water. We must water once a day.
And now we wait.
It’s not the prettiest addition to our deck, but it is promising.
I’m going to watch for leaves. I’ll give these plants a week or so before making a judgement. If they don’t make it, now that we know how to use the hanging planter, I’ll go to a garden center and get “real” strawberry plants. Since I’m still a beginning gardener, I need a back-up gardening plan like that. We suspect that more knowledgeable gardeners must spend way less money on gardening than beginners like us with multi-layered back-up plans.
