Strawberry Boxes in the Garden

Now that I've decided where I want the boxes (Dave did have a little bit of say but he wanted me to choose the spots for the strawberries) we put down weed shield since we have a pretty bad morning glory week problem and I wanted no chance of the morning glory coming up through the new garden boxes.

We started out filling the box about a third full of compost.


And here's the main ingredient: compost (available by the truck load from our local landfill for a mere $30 per load (approximately 3 cubic feet) and it's pretty good compost for the price.


After we put down the weed blocker we moved on to compiling the various components of fill. We used mostly equal amounts of peat moss, perlite and compost with some small additions of steer manure and sand.

After the first layer of compost we added in other "ingredients" until the box was almost full.

Here's a picture of the 3 back boxes in various stages of development-weed shield to the back, partially filled in the middle and completed box in the foreground. Using these boxes we've planted numerous strawberry plants-some June bearing and some everbearing.

2nd half of Strawberry Boxes

After you've built a box, attach two boxes together with metal tie plates. We bought the medium sized ones with five holes, then four holes, then five holes, etc.... Use two tie plates for each side to keep the box from twisting when it's finished.

Hammer in four nails for each tie plate-one in each corner of the plate.

When done securing all the tie plates, bend and pound in the protruding ends of the nails so if someone has to reach in the box for weeding they won't snag their glove (or hand!) on the nails from the tie plates.


And here's two beautiful finished boxes! Let the planting begin! After they're filled with soil! And after I've determined where they will go in the yard!

Strawberry Boxes

The incentive for this project was free wood, screws and nails. It starts with my dad building various garden boxes through-out my growing up years. Recently he saved the redwood planking from a deck he took down and kindly sawed the pieces into approximately 3' x 4 ' lengths for me. I helped by carrying the cut pieces to lean against the outside wall-yeah, I know, really a tough job-especially since I didn't have gloves. :)
Here's the beginning of building a strawberry box on the top picture. We alternated the ends of the old redwood boards. So on the picture, the bottom board (just above the date stamp) is aligned with the outside of the board on the right (just above the date stamp and the bottom board) and then alternately it is aligned with the inside of the board on the left. Just alternate the ends so one end is on the inside and the other end on the outside. Next picture is the drilling.
Then Dave drilled three holes (after marking with chalk) into what would be the outside of each board end. Next picture is the fastening.
Then we recycled old 2 1/2" to 3 " screws to fasten the boards together. (Total of 12 screws per simple box.) Next picture is the finished product.
And here we have the finished box. Next post I'll show how we put two boxes together.