I enjoy strawberries and it was a struggle for me not to get any (or small portions) in winter. That’s why I did some research on how you can plant strawberries in winter and summer.
I finally found the perfect combination of planting and protecting the strawberry so that I can enjoy it any time of the year.
You would need a lot of wine barrels, power tools and a green thumb to get this going, but once you’re set up, you’re good to go.
Prepare your greenhouse
In this article I’m going to assume that you have a greenhouse already and that you have the irrigation and everything in place.
It’s important that the strawberry plants aren’t exposed to the cold winter, that’s why it’s important that you seal your greenhouse tightly so that it can reach an acceptable climate for the strawberries to grow in.
If you have money to spare and you want to plant other summer fruit, then I would suggest purchasing a spray light or some sort of heating system to keep the greenhouse warm.
Plastic is the best material to use in my honest opinion, but it may differ from each country and its weather conditions.
Roll out the wine barrels
Strawberries are very finicky when it comes to insects and snails. That’s why we use the barrel system to plant our strawberries, since snails hate rough surfaces.
First, we place the barrel upright where we want it to be since we will be working where the barrel will be positioned. Take your drill and insert a circle drill to create small holes into the sides of the barrel.
Use your own discretion on how many holes you want, this is where the strawberries will be planted.
Ground Mix
When throwing in dirt be sure to mix in some bone meal and compost so that the ground will be rich with minerals and the essential nutrients your strawberries need.
Throw in a small amount of dirt into the bottom of the barrel, at least two shovels full.
PVC Pipe
With the dirt in the barrel, measure the height of the PVC pipe so that at least 5 centimetres sticks out at the top.
Make various cuts on the pipe and put it in vertically and start filling it up with more dirt till you reach the rim of the barrel
Planting
Now you’re ready to plant your strawberries! Insert strawberries into the holes you created in the barrel and plant a few on the top of the barrel.
With everything in place you will be able to water your plants through the PVC pipe and it will reach all of the plants through the cuts in the PVC pipe.
It’s amazing what a bit of ingenuity and the correct tools can do.
Important Note: I would really advise you to buy the right tools for this job. In our experience, the first strawberry barrel we created we used only saws to cut the holes and the PVC pipe. Once we bought a power drill, it became much easier and we built a few strawberry barrels in a matter of a few hours.
