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We live in a small house with a small backyard.
I wanted to keep a portion of it for my daughter to play on and we also have a parking spot.
As you can understand, there are not much growing space left…
Every square foot counts.
I’ve been wanting to grow my own strawberries for a while now. However, there was this one problematic question:
How many strawberry plants can you grow on a square foot?
Only one
following the traditional method.
Not very productive…
However, if you use this square foot to install a towering strawberry field, you could be growing several dozens plants!
Why a tower?
The main advantage is, obviously, space saving.
Using a tower is a creative and innovative way of maximizing the production of a small foot print garden. It can also be used to grow strawberries on a deck, patio or even a balcony. This principle is not only restricted to small urban gardens, it can be used anywhere were space is limited. Greenhouse anyone?!
Another good advantage, is that growing your strawberries off the ground reduces the risk of diseases and pest. You will be able to grow high quality berries.
Also, let’s face it, it’s a nice, impressive and fun way to grow them!
And the disadvantages?
More often then not, there are drawbacks to any solution… One of the biggest issue is that the tower can topple… And that could be catastrophic… But worry not! There are ways to alleviate that problem.
Also, the set-up requires more investment, both in money and time, then just planting your strawberries in the ground. But remember that it’s an investment and that the tower can be reused again and again.
DIY or not?
If you are not really a DIYourselfer, this project is still well within your reach! It’s not a hard project and could even be the start of a great learning journey toward doing more and more projects!
If you still are not convinced that you can do it, there are plenty of alternative that you could buy:
Mr. Stacky
A tower of stackable constainer. Very easy to use! Build it from the ground up, add soil, plant up and your done!
This particular version is a 5 tiered tower containing 20 plants.
You just need to add water to the top, all other tiers will also be irrigated.
My easy Garden
An ideal buying option for planting in small space. This option is ready to be planted directly in groud, garden bed or pot.
This particular version has growing space for 7 plants.
You just need to add water to the top, all other tiers will also be irrigated.
Flower Tower
Very similar to the strawberry tower project, but in an already finished product.
This tower is good for a whooping 30 plants! It also has an integrated irrigation system that brings water to the roots of the 30 plants.
Garden Tower 2
This tower is a complete garden system. Not only can it hold 50 plants in a mere 4 square feet footprint, but it’s also a composter.
It can turn your kitchen waste (not all of it!) into an organic fertilizer that will nourish your plants. The turn table underneath it makes maintenance a breeze. As such, it’s the perfect companion for a patio or small backyard.
It’s prep time!
This year I have decided to upgrade my garden and to, finally, give this towering solution a try. Since I work in engineering, I like to create prototypes before going all out.
As such, I’ve decide to build a small version and to see how it “grows”.
I love to cook (see the Food category in the top menu?) and I have this strange behavior in seing many manual building project like a recipe with ingredient and steps.
The first thing to do is to get all of your ingredients, well, I mean your material.
The main article you will need is a PVC sewer pipe. Unused sewer pipe. In this case a 4 inches tube was used because it was a leftover of some landscaping we did last year to pass some wires and tubes underground.
Tips
If you start from scratch, I would suggest to buy a 6 inches sewer pipe, it will give you increased space without costing to much. Plus, it will be more stable once filled.
These PVC tubes can be bought at any hardware store near you. They normally comes in length of 10 feet. One length of tube, cut in the middle, will give you the material to create 2 towers of 5 feet.
Holes in the Sewer pipe
Now that you have your PVC tube ready, it is time to make some hole for your plants.
To cut the holes I suggest to use a 1.5 or 2 inch hole saw. If the holes are too small, you might have trouble planting the strawberries. On the opposite side, if they are too big, the soil might decide to leave the tower on it’s own volition.
Now, let’s discuss the number of holes.
Since it was my first time trying out to grow strawberries and plus the first time trying to make this tower, I went for a lower number of holes. I wanted to make sure that I grasped all the concepts and that I would leave enough space for the plants to grow there root system.
You can use mathematics and a little common sense to get to the numbers I will give you.
To maximize the number of plants on a 6 inch PVC pipe all the while giving enough room for a strong root system:
- 4 holes on each horizontal row.
- 13 or 12 horizontal rows.
- The horizontal rows are staggered and 2.5 inches apart, center to center.
- On each vertical row the holes are 4 inches apart, center to center.
- Keep 8 inches at the bottom of each pipe such that your plant do not touch the ground.
Using this description and the drawing below, you will end up with 100 strawberry plants on single tube!
Now, you need to take these number with a grain of salt.
Depending on the size of your holes, your might end up with less horizontal rows. I suggest that you increase the distance from the vertical rows center to center to 3 inches if you cut 2 inches holes.
- 4 holes on each horizontal row.
- 12 horizontal rows.
- The horizontal rows are staggered and 3 inches apart, center to center.
- On each vertical row the holes are 4 inches apart, center to center.
- Keep 8 inches at the bottom of each pipe such that your plant do not touch the ground
Tips
If you want to push the concept farther, don’t keep the 8 inches at the bottom. You can cut another 2 holes per vertical row.
If you do not intend to plant those 100 strawberries, it’s fine! You still can cut out all the holes in case you decide to go all in.
Mark and cut
You can use your prefered method to mark the tube. But here is one that should be quite efficient:
- Mark both ends of the pipe with the vertical row holes center. Make sure that both ends marks are aligned. You can use the manufacturer’s marking as guidance.
- Mark the horizontal row holes center using marking at both ends as reference to keep a straight line. Using a rigid measuring tape will be very useful for that step.
Now that all of the holes center have been marked, the process is quite straightforward when using a drill and a hole-saw.
Tips
Try to stabilize the tube while marking and cutting it. It will ease the process and will reduce the risk of getting some serious injuries. To stabilize it, you can use a pair of saw horse with some form of cradle that will make sure that the tube doesn’t move. Once all holes are cut, I suggest that you use sandpaper to remove the sharper edges of the holes.
Tower set-up
Before even thinking about filling the tower and planting the strawberries, there are some concerns that need to be addressed: Irrigation and Installation.
Irrigation
All plants need water to survive and thrive. That’s a basic fact of life. Now, you can’t really water the tower the way you would water a strawberry field.
There are several ways that can be used and I tried them all. The first is to simply pour water manually on top of the tower and let the soil absorb it. Repeat until the bottom of the tower is soaked.
The second and easiest way to irrigate your tower is to install a small dripper on top of it and let the water dribble down the tower. Installing an irrigation can seem like a big undertaking but it’s not that difficult. As such, you could design and build your own system, I really encourage you to try it. If you feel overwhelmed at the idea, there are some drip irrigation kits that already exist with all the parts you need.
The last solution is to use a soaker hose. I had a broken one lying around in the shed and I used it as a prototype. To prevent clogging from both soil and roots, I wrapped a piece of landscaping cloth around.
Tips
Preferably, use a small diameter soaker hose.
Don’t forget to close the end of the hose with a cap! Otherwise, you might end up with an empty tower as the water will wash away the soil.
In any case, except for the manual watering, you should use a timer or some kind of automation system to control the irrigation of your tower. It will save you time, ease the maintenance and will make sure that your plants don’t die on you. Strawberries requires quite some water to grow.
Installation and stabilization
Wherever you decide to install your brand new contraption, you need to stabilize it and secure it, specially if you live in a windy area.
You can install it directly on the ground, but you need to secure it to something like a fence, wall or a post. If you don’t, there is a (high) chance that it could topple over and wreck havoc with your plants. The advantage of placing it directly on the ground is that you can use the full extent of the tube. However, it might be difficult to move it around to maximize sunlight exposure.
Another way of securing it is to simply plant the bottom part into the ground or into a large pot. The advantage is that you can move your sky-scrapper to change the configuration of your yard or to maximize the sunlight exposure. That’s the solution I have selected since there is not much space to hang/attach the tower too in my backyard. Also. I find it useful to be able to move things around the patio for all sorts of good (or not) reasons.
Another item to consider before finishing the installation is the tube end cap.
To cap or not to cap… this is the question…
The cap would be required for these circumpstances:
- You want to move your tower and its not planted in a pot.
- You want to hang/suspend your tower in the air, not touching the ground.
- Because you think it would be a better finished product.
Tips
Do not forget to drill holes in the cap to drain the water.
Suspending your tower in the air will require a very very strong structure.
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Now it’s time to plant-up!
Now that your tower is set-up correctly and that it is installed, you need “something” to populate your tower.
Yeah that’s it! It’s the time that your plants take there rooms in the tower! But… How to do that? It’s actually simple.
- Pour your favorite potting soil/fertilizer mixture in the tower until you reach the bottom of the first row. Tamp it down a little using your fingers.
- Place one plant per hole (4).
- Add soil to the tube until the next level is reached. Tamp it down a little using your finger.
- Place one plant per hole on this level (4).
- Repeat until all holes are planted.
Finishing Notes
It’s over. You’ve finished reading this guide. Your strawberry tower is ready to grow.
I’m not the inventor of this concept. There are other ways to grow strawberries along the vertical plane. However, this solution is the one I have chosen to try and to optimize for my environment.
This guide might have sparked your interest (I hope it did!) and maybe you are envisioning some tweaks and mods of your own already.
Now take up your tools and start making your own Strawberry Sky-scrapper! Thrust me, it’s a good and fun learning experience!
Is there any other Towering ways you have used in your own garden?
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