Growing Your Own Strawberries This Year? Go Vertical!

FREELAND, Wash. - April 10, 2014 - PRLog -- If you have a small yard but want to try your hand at growing strawberries, here are a couple things to consider.

First, pick the right type of strawberry for you. Traditionally, strawberries fruit like crazy in early summer and then are gone - these are the “June Bearing” types. If you aren’t freezing or making jam, but want fresh strawberries over longer period of time, consider the “Day Neutral” types. These relatively new cultivars can be almost as productive as the “June Bearers”, but are much less influenced by length-of-day. As a result, they flower and fruit right through the summer and early fall, as long as the temperature stays below about 85-90^◦F, when flowering slows until temperatures drop.

“Day Neutrals” put less of their energy into runners and more into fruit. They are perfect for containers or vertical beds (see below).

“Everbearing” strawberries flower and fruit in spring and fall. Fall flowers produce a crop the following spring. They are typically less productive than the “Day Neutrals”.

And you might consider planting your strawberries in a “vertical bed”.

Strawberries like a lot of sun. The plants require excellent drainage. Berries will mold quickly when resting directly on damp soil. And, bluntly put, strawberries have a “weed” issue. They are too short to out-compete taller weeds, so a strawberry patch can sometimes become a weed patch by its 2^nd or 3^rd year.

“Vertical planting beds” solve all these problems handily. Vertical beds are like “raised beds”, only taller, often with multiple planting levels.

Consider one such offering, the “GrowScape™ vertical garden”, introduced this year by Muscle and Arm Farm in Washington State (see picture).

The GrowScape bed utilizes stacking cylinders, each 6 inches high and of varying diameter. To build the bed, the largest cylinder is laid out and filled with a soil mix. The next smaller cylinder is set on top and filled with soil, and so on. Each cylinder is 6 inches smaller in diameter than the last, providing a 3 inch ledge on which to plant.

By “going vertical”, a relatively small footprint can translate into an amazing amount of growing surface. For example, a 5 foot tall “GrowScape”, with a footprint diameter of just under 6 feet, is equivalent to over 90 feet of linear row!

The GrowScape cylinders are made of rot-proof, heavy-duty, black HDPE (“milk bottle” plastic), so they hold up to rugged use and won’t leach chemicals into the soil like treated lumber. The black color resists UV degradation, and warms the planting bed earlier in spring. The cylinders are held together with stainless steel nuts and bolts.

This bed is perfect for growing strawberries. If a clean soil mix is used and sod is removed before installation (a barrier of corrugated cardboard should work, too), weed control shouldn’t be an issue. Drainage problems are resolved. Ripe strawberries will be off the ground for the most part. And plant roots can reach deeply into the heart of the soil “mountain” for moisture and nutrients.

Link for GrowScape clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMTjwPZjBh4



The “vertical” option essentially adds well-drained gardening real-estate to your yard. It makes sense for other food crops and flowers, too. But “vertical” might get its strongest vote from the “designated weeder” of the family!