I live in Southern Kentucky. I am wanting to grow soem strawberry's at home but because of my time demands want to do so if possible without alot of upkeep.
Thought baout building a "container" for lack of a better term out of railroad ties. Kind of a pyramid, one square on top of another square, etc.
Putting down plastic for weed control then on top of the plastic putting mulch.
I have never grown strawberrys. Are they vines that put out "runners"? If so, will my idea not work because of the plastic? (Runners will not be able to root)?
send out runners above the ground. At the end of each runner is a little plantlet which will take root under the right conditions. With the ones I've grown, the runners have been maybe 8-10" long, so that means you want 16-20" around each original plant. The mother plants tend to get weak & ratty after a couple of years, so you want to pay attention to the runners. Some may hang over the edge of the planter and die. I sort of helped mine by weighing them down on the soil with large bark chips.
They're a bit labor intensive, but so what? The difference between fresh strawberries and store bought ones is analogous to either having sex, or listening to a love scene from the lobby of a movie theatre, but not getting to the door of the theatre quickly enough to see it. :-)
By the way, one advantage of your pyramid idea is that when you're designing it in your head, you can include a way of making a tent using plastic mesh available at garden stores. Without that, you may end up sharing most of your crop with birds and other rascals.
Please don't use railroad ties, especially for anything you plan t eat. I wouldn't use any treated wood for food. From this site:
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"Avoid using creosote-treated railroad ties. Freshly treated creosot lumber can leach into the soil for several years and continues to giv off vapors over a seven to nine year period."
2x10 lumber. It's been out in rain & snow every year but 2. No rotting, even the 2" or so of wood that's in constant contact with the soil. And, I didn't use rot-resistant wood like cedar or redwood - just whatever your average
2x10 at the lumber yard is made of. If it rots, so what? The frame's bolted together in such a way that in an hour, I can disassemble the sides, lay them on top of the new wood, trace the pattern & drilling points, and have a whole new frame in 2 hours, or 3 hours if the neighbors stop by to chat. 4 if they bring beer.
I just don't see a reason for treated lumber to enter one's mind, at least not for structures which are above ground. The OP's strawberry planter fits this category.
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