April 27, 2010

Strawberry Container Gardening

I can't help but be excited about spring this year.  You may have picked up on this considering I started planning my garden back in February!  Last year at this time (and through most of the summer) my backyard was just a plot of grass without a patio, fence, or any landscaping.  But after a long summer of heavy work, this year we are ready to enjoy our new backyard and I finally have a place to try out some gardening. 

Although I no longer plan to create a raised bed vegetable garden in my yard like my original backyard plan indicated (something about a hungry puppy makes that sound like a bad idea), I plan to try my luck with small space and container gardening to grow fruits and vegetables.  I have a few creative ideas planned for container gardens and patio garden planters so stayed tuned.

This weekend, I started my first expedition in growing an edible garden by planting strawberries in a window planter box.  I bought 2 Bonnie Sequoia strawberry plants from Lowes and planted them into a plastic window container I already had.

strawberry_plants
The strawberries came in biodegradable pots that could be planted directly into my container which made the process super easy.  The Bonnie website has a great video showing a step by step guide to planting fruits and vegetables from these pots and some tips about growing strawberries.


diy_strawberry_plants

The past few days have been cold and rainy in my neck of the woods, so for now I have my newly planted strawberries inside on a windowsill, but I plan on moving them outside tomorrow once the temperature picks up.

strawberry_window_planter

Have you ever tried  strawberry container gardening or grown other fruits and vegetables in containers?  Any tips to share?  One of my concerns is figuring out how to keep birds from eating my strawberry crop once they grow.  Any advice for this newbie gardener?

1 comment:

Kim @ NewlyWoodwards said...

I hope your strawberry plant does well. Our plants are in the ground, and they are already coming in crazy. I cannot wait to start getting fruit.