Photo: Kara Olyowski
There’s nothing that says summer quite like biting into a juicy, homegrown strawberry! When I lived in Golden, I had a massive strawberry bed and my biggest problem was making sure to get to the fruit before the birds. I’ve since moved up into the foothills and live around 8300 feet. Gardening at this elevation has its own challenges for sure, one of them being a short growing season, so last summer we built a greenhouse. Growing in a greenhouse is awesome, but space is definitely at a premium. I wanted to grow strawberries again and decided that growing them in a container was the best space-efficient route to go.
You can grow strawberries in almost any type of container. There is even a specific pot called a strawberry jar! Strawberries are shallow-rooted, so containers do not need to be deep, but it is helpful if they have a lot of surface area. A challenge with container growing is making sure the plants have consistent moisture- not too soggy and not too dry. In the middle of summer, this usually means twice daily water checks. More frequent watering with less water is ideal for strawberries. I decided to grow my strawberries in a gutter that I’ve hung on the inside of one of my greenhouse’s walls.
I used a piece of leftover vinyl gutter from another home improvement project. I love it when I can minimize waste and think of new ways to use something. The gutter is around five feet long. I drilled holes throughout the bottom of the gutter, big enough to let water escape, but small enough that soil did not fall out. I also placed gutter end caps to keep the soil from falling out. I bought gutter brackets to hang it up on the wall. Once it was up, I filled the gutter with moist container soil and planted some everbearing strawberry plants.
Photo: Kara Olyowski
Photo: Kara Olyowski
There are three types of strawberry plants: June-bearing, everbearing, and day-neutral. Everbearing and day-neutral cultivars are best suited for container gardening. They are usually grown as annuals and will set fruit the same year they are planted. A tip is to snip off runners as they develop. Runners make for an attractive hanging plant, but all of that growth means less energy is directed towards growing the fruit. I’ve already been able to enjoy fresh strawberries harvested from my gutter container!
Photo: Kara Olyowski
For more information about strawberry gardening, check out the following:
Growing Strawberries in Colorado Gardens
Strawberries for the Home Garden
How to Grow Strawberries in Containers
