A couple of months ago, we were in a Bed Bath and Beyond looking for sheets, when I stopped dead in my tracks…
…A Topsy Turvy Strawberry planter. You mean I can grow strawberries now even though I don’t have the lawn space. I started shaking and flailing my arms in excitement as I ran to show my husband, who was like, ‘that’s nice, can we just pick out some sheets?’.
You see, Strawberry season for me is right up there with the Christmas holidays. It is one of my most favorite times of the year. It is a short, but sweet season. One filled with many trips to the u-pick farm to harvest the precious bounty. It is a season filled with strawberry shortcake, strawberry ice cream, strawberry pie and strawberry sundaes. And now I can grow them myself. Life is good!
I didn’t buy the planter at that time, because it was a little early. And even with all of that excitement, I actually forgot about it. But then Frugal Babe reminded me of them when she wrote about her new Topsy Turvey Planters and I was at BB&Beyond in about 5 minutes flat.
I am not familiar with the Tomato version of the planter, but I assume it is similar. The strawberry version cost $12.99 and I used a 20% coupon. The box states that the planter holds between 15-30 strawberry plants and the average yield of 15 strawberry plants is up to 15 quarts with proper care, feeding and sunlight.
I headed to a local nursery who was selling a package of 25 strawberry plants for $10.99. I also picked up a bag of good, organic potting soil. Overall, I spent about $30, but strawberries are perennials, so if all goes well they will last for years…I’m going to cross my fingers.
The 25 strawberry plants were so tiny.
The instructions were very easy to follow. I found it easier to fill the planter while it was hanging on a shepherd’s hook that I already had.
I’m not quite sure the shepherd’s hook is going to hold the planter. It got very heavy once filled with the plants and soil and then I had to add the water. My husband isn’t a welder like Frugal Babe’s, so I’ll have to come up with another option.
I hope my experiment is successful. As a side note, I bought ‘everbearing’ strawberry plants versus the ‘junebearing’. Apparently they yield through out the summer instead of just a few weeks in June….we’ll see.
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I haven’t seen anything like this for strawberries, but have for tomatoes.
Since we get strawberries grown locally very cheap (88 cents a pound right now) I wouldn’t probably grow my own.
But you have inspired to look into tomoatoes that I can grow on my patios.
Like Bucksome Boomer said, I’ve never seen this type of thing for strawberries… I’m tempted though ’cause I’ve never had any luck growing strawberries.
Wow, Bucksome, 88 cents a pound for strawberries is a great deal. I wouldn’t bother either. I don’t even think the u-pick farm I go to sells them for that much.
I ordered 25 strawberry plants from a mail order catalog, and am still waiting to get them. It is a little early for me to plant as we do still get a frost some nights (like last night!). I also have no idea where I am going to plant them. Maybe you have given me the idea! Especially since I looked up how to plant and care for the strawberries, and they require LOTS of space if planted in the ground. One note of interest: the article recommended pruning the first flowers for a better yield in future years. For June bearing plants this means no strawberries this year. For everbearing, it was recommended to prune off flowers until July, and then you will get the best yield after that. Just an FYI I garnered from my research.
Mrs B – I planted my strawberries last night and woke up early this morning to go for a run and I saw frost on the ground. Yikes, I decided it must be cold so I crawled back in bed and then I got a little nervous for the strawberries. Hopefully they survive. Good to know about pruning the strawberries…that is going to be hard, but hopefully worth it. thanks for the comments.
Good luck with your strawberries! I have the tomato version. I bought it last year after the season so I got it cheap. I told my husband we need to figure out where to hang it that is strong enough. If strawberries and dirt are heavy, you can imagine what tomatoes and dirt will weigh! I do have a backyard, and I have success with flowers, but not with tomatoes. Seriously, I think I’m the only Long Islander who can’t grow them. I figured this would be worth a try!
I hope you are successful. Can you imagine picking your own strawberries, just slightly warm from the sunshine? Mmmmmmmm….
I’m visiting from Amy’s Finer Things Friday. My husband made me one of these out of a 5 gallon pail with a lid. He just drilled large holes in the sides for the plants to peek out of and one on the bottom to allow excess water to drain. We put some holes in the lid to water the plants and hung it with some chain on large hook from the hardware store… the type you use for porch swings. I’m excited to see how our project works out!
I think the real value is something like this is getting to know how your strawberries are grown. Yes- you may be able to buy them for .88 a lb- but those are the strawberries that are close to the top of the list of the “dirty dozen” with a possible high amount of pesticides on them.
I have a topsy turvy tomato plant for the first time this year but it’s not looking good, I think I’m watering it too much, it’s hardly grown since I planted it. I hope you have good luck with your strawberries. I have as strawberry plant in a hanging basket and that’s not growing much either! :-/
We have the topsy turvy tomato planter and just installed it last weekend. We were going to use a shephards hook but it didn’t look like it would support the weight of the plant. So my husband screwed a hook in one of our tree limbs and it is hanging very nicely now!
I saw the strawberry one and thought it looked interesting but we already have strawberries that grow on the side of our house!
How neat is that!?! What they come up with!
These look like such fun to try!
I’m working on this one this year as well as trying to make a homemade tomato version. Exciting!
dogsportz – my plant is growing, but no flowers yet. I bought everbearing berries, so maybe that’s why. The shephards hook was bending too much, so my dh screwed a hook to the side of our shed and it seems to be holding well. I am planning on posting some garden update pics next week. Thanks for the comments!
I see in your picture that when planting the roots they already had a few leaves on them. Mine had none and after 3-4 weeks of planting in the bag they still look like they did when I first got them. I’m wondering if they are pretty much no good? Thanks…..
I have one of these and so far doing great, most of the plants are starting to bear fruit. We have had a cold spell, so I am hoping once it warms up a bit they will do better. I use a shepherds hook and although it has a slight bend in it, it so far has held up. How is yours doing?
We just bought our strawberry planter today. I waited until it went on sale and scored it for $7! It’s too late to plant this year so I will do lots of research and plan for next year. We live in a small apartment and garden in containers on the balcony. This year we tried a Topsy Turvy tomato planter which is growing beautifully, busily producing copious amounts of cherry tomatoes. We tried a couple strawberry plants in window boxes hanging from the balcony and have been enjoying the fruits for a week now. This year I added moisture beads to the container soil and we are hoping this helps with fruit and vegetable yields. We have a small balcony that attaches to our daughter’s (she conveniently lives right next door which gave us twice the growing space) and we grow Thyme, Lavender, Rosemary, Sage, Yummy Bell peppers, Cherry Tomatoes, Snow Peas, Cucumbers, Daisies, Comfrey and a Lacy Leaf Maple tree. It’s a little ambitious but we’re having pretty good success and next year we want to add potatoes and those wonderful strawberries. I will be watching your site for insights into successfully cultivating them. Incidentally, lacking a tree to hang from we used a double sided shepherd’s hook which bowed under the weight so my husband tied the other side off to the balcony rail for stability. Good luck with yours.
Susan – wow, you have quite the container garden, it sounds awesome. There are a few little tiny green strawberries starting on my planter. I will definitely include pics on my next garden update. Thanks for the comments.
As a child growing up, my parent always had a huge vegetable garden complete with strawberries. We always had fresh fruits and vegetables in the summer and my Mother canned and froze the extra for the rest of the year. I planted ten plants in a strawberry topsy turvy mid May to show my grandchildren that food does not grow in the supermarket. I did not research this project before I started and did not know how to plant them or that the first blossoms should be pruned. Hope my luck continues. My plants are beautiful, lush full plants with lots of blooms and strawberries that are getting bigger as the days pass. My question now, is what to do with the topsy turvy when the summer passes. I live in an apartment. What would happen if I hung it inside like a hanging plant?
kansas meme – I am so jealous, my strawberry plants haven’t died, but they aren’t flowering at all, so I have no berries 🙁
Did you keep the packaging from the planter? I seem to remember it saying how to store over the off season. I think I am going to store in our shed. I just have to figure out how to hang it. I would do an online search. it sounds like you have quite the planter and I would hate for you to lose it over the winter.
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I just got a couple of new, but older design strawberry planters and one tomato one at Big Lots. They were $2.50 each and I figured I couldn’t go wrong at that price. I have only planted my tomato…I will probably have to wait till next spring to plant the strawberries. I saw the tomato tower for $10, but I didn’t get it. If they still have them at that price, I might get one tomorrow. I also got the Topsy Turvy cloudburst watering wand for $4. I have my planted tomato hanging from my umbrella type clothesline. I don’t know how much it will hold. I had a family of rabbits move into my yard and I only got 2 strawberries this year. I figure between hanging them up and using a bird net, I might actually get to eat more berries than the wildlife.