To be able to pick strawberries from your own garden is the height of luxury. Just imagine stepping out of the backdoor and picking ripe juicy strawberries from your own homemade planter, then adding fresh cream for the perfect treat. Growing strawberries in open ground is fraught with problems not least of which are the slugs which will devour your berries before you can harvest them. The answer is to take an old wooden pallet and turn it into a strawberry planter. This article which I found over on the Garden Lovers Club tells you how you can do it yourself and includes a video demonstration.

Strawberries fresh from your own garden are a terrific treat during the growing season. A drawback to raising your own strawberries, though, is that their compact size means a bit of land is needed for a respectable number of plants. Their close proximity to the ground also makes them a challenge to harvest. Fortunately, this same compactness lends itself nicely to container growing. Using a multi-plant container saves space, provides easier access, and makes it a cinch to keep weeds under control. A quick and inexpensive way to provide vertical growing space for these plants is by recycling an old shipping pallet. In the accompanying video from Lovely Gardens TV, host Tanya reveals the detailed steps on how to transform a normally unsightly leftover used for transporting merchandise into a valuable addition to your garden that offers delicious rewards year after year. As the video demonstrates, a few things need to be rounded up first. At the top of the list, the pallet in question must not have the initials MB stamped on it. This would indicate that the pallet has been fumigated with methyl bromide. This chemical lingers and is toxic to strawberry plants. Instead, look for the initials HT. This means heat treatment was used to kill assorted pests and pathogens. In addition, gather together tools including a handsaw or power jigsaw, hammer, wide blade chisel, and screwdriver or power screwdriver.
Also, a couple dozen wood screw about one and a half or two inches long will be used. With everything ready, just follow these eight steps.

Step 1: Count the Number of Slats on Front Side of Pallet

Along with having a pallet that?s chemical-free, also make sure the number of slats on the top side are evenly divisible by three. For instance, the video uses a pallet with nine slats, but six, twelve, or fifteen would also work.

Step 2: Cut the pallet into three (containing the same number of slats)

Once the first round of cutting is complete, flip the three sections over and remove the bottom slats along with the attached spacer blocks from the middle section. On the outer sections, pry off the bottom slats running perpendicular to the top slats. Don?t throw anything away.

Step 3: Pull off Smaller Slats

Once the first round of cutting is complete, flip the three sections over and remove the bottom slats along with the attached spacer blocks from the middle section. On the outer sections, pry off the bottom slats running perpendicular to the top slats. Don?t throw anything away.

See more at the Garden Lovers Club
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