What Happens When You Can't Find A Strawberry Planter

This is crazy, right?  It seems like you could find a strawberry planter at every Tom, Dick, and Home Depot garden center during the spring.  Yet I have been on this quest for the last 3 years with no avail.  But we would not be thwarted!  We made our own.  Quick, easy and fun.  And the side benefit?  Sophia feels a real ownership in these strawberries and takes care of them like her children.  The excitement of a new red, ripe strawberry is felt through the entire household.

So here we go.  First, buy three sizes of sand pals (this was surprisingly tricky and I had to go to several stores).  It was also a little difficult to convince Sophia there were plenty of sand buckets for the beach leftover.
 







Next drill holes in said buckets.  Make sure the holes are decent size as drainage is important.  We also put in some little white patio rocks in the bottom to help with drainage.

Fill with potting soil.  We added some Leaf Grow.  Leaf Gro is the butter of the gardening world.  Barry always says, "Mo butter, Mo better."  Same goes with Leaf Gro.  When filling the bottom larger

 
bucket, fill it about 3/4 full then set in the medium sized bucket.  Now you can fill the rest of the bucket up with soil.

Now the fun part.  You take the strawberries out of their market
pack container and loosen the roots.  You stuff, and I mean stuff, them into the the sides between the two buckets.  When you get them in there put a little more soil along the sides to fill in any gaps.  We put in 3 plants around the big, bottom bucket.  You repeat this with the medium sized bucket but put in 2 plants.  When you place the smallest bucket, plant only one strawberry plant in there.

Tah Dah!  You now have a colorful strawberry planter for your deck or stoop.  It took 3 buckets, a few rocks, a small bag of potting soil, and 6 strawberry plants.

Your final act is to water and pick your strawberries as the spring days pass by.