I was wanting to try growing our own strawberries this year. I said I would never try bare root plants again, but here we go. Tractor Supply had Ozark Beauty Everbearing Strawberries for $4.99 for 10 plants. I figured even if they did not turn out well, there would not be much lost.
I was beginning to worry that we were behind planting them, but zone 7 says plant February through May.
Rather than trying to find another spot in the yard to plant the strawberries we opted for planters. I still have some unused pots in the building, but nothing that could be hung. Also, we are planning on using those for herbs. We found these adorable basket style planters on sale at Lowe’s. I love the look up them. It looks like they are made of grapevines.
We cut a few very small slits in the bottom of the plastic for water drainage. We then filled the basket planters with a mixture of topsoil and potting soil.
This is what we found when we opened the package. Well, actually it took us a moment to even find this…lol. Jon gingerly separated the plants. There were actually a couple that had fresh sprouts starting. That makes me hopeful. I have read and also been told to soak the roots prior to planting to jump start them, but since there was some new growth we skipped it (I hope we do not regret that later).
It was 40 degrees outside Saturday when we were planting these, yet at one point it was spitting snow at us. Come on Spring! Some of the plants were larger than others. Here you can see better what they look like as well as the new growth.
We then put a little more potting soil on top and spread the mulch like mixture they were packaged in over that. The baskets are hung along the deck where they will get full sun. You can see some of our new fruit trees in pots on the deck in the background.
Here’s hoping we have better luck with these bare roots than some of our other attempts.
