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Vertical bed can be called an unusual and successful invention. The design saves a lot of space in the summer cottage. If you approach this issue creatively, a vertical bed will be an excellent decoration for your yard. Moreover, not only flowers or ornamental plants can be grown on this structure. Vertical ones have become very popular among gardeners. strawberry beds, allowing you to harvest a huge harvest in a small suburban area.
Vertical beds made from sewer pipes
This invention should rightfully be given first place. If we are talking about growing strawberries or strawberries in vertical beds, then PVC sewer pipes are the No. 1 material for the manufacture of structures.
Let's look at what is the advantage of using pipe beds:
- The sewer pipe is sold with accessories. Using elbows, tees or half-elbows allows you to quickly and easily assemble a vertical bed of unusual shape. The simplest strawberry bed can be a vertically dug PVC pipe with a diameter of 110 mm.
- The plastic pipe is resistant to weather disasters.The material is not subject to corrosion, rot, or fungus formation. Even garden pests will not chew plastic. During periods of heavy rainfall, there is no need to fear that the strawberries will be washed out of the pipe along with the soil.
- Installation strawberry beds PVC pipes can be used even on asphalt near the house. The structure will become a real decoration of the yard. Red strawberries or wild strawberries will always be clean, they are easy to collect, and if necessary, the entire bed can be moved to another place.
- Each PVC pipe serves as a separate section of the vertical bed. In the event of a strawberry disease, the pipe with the affected plants is removed from the common bed to prevent the spread of the disease throughout all the bushes.
And finally, the low cost of PVC pipes allows you to get an inexpensive and beautiful garden bed, which will last for decades.
It’s not difficult to build a strawberry bed from one vertically dug pipe. However, we need an unusual idea. Now we will look at how to make a vertical bed for strawberries with a three-dimensional design, as shown in the photo.
For work you will need PVC pipes with a diameter of 110 mm, as well as tees of a similar cross-section. The amount of material depends on the size of the bed, and to calculate it you need to make a simple drawing.
The frame of the created bed consists of two parallel pipes on the ground. They form the base. All lower pipes are connected using tees, into which vertical posts are inserted into the central hole at an angle.From above they converge into one line, where, using the same tees, they are fastened with one jumper from the pipe. The result is an upside-down V-shaped structure.
So, let's start making:
- First, racks are made from pipes. They are cut to the required length and holes with a diameter of 100 mm are drilled on the sides in increments of 200 mm. Strawberries will grow in these windows.
- Using tees and pieces of pipes, two frame base blanks are assembled. Gravel is poured inside to stabilize the structure. The central holes of the tees are not filled to the top. It is necessary to leave space for inserting racks. The gravel filler at the base will act as a reservoir for excess water that appears during irrigation.
- Two finished frame base blanks are laid on the ground parallel to each other. Stands prepared with drilled windows are inserted into the central holes of the tees. Now they all need to be tilted inside the frame. The tees at the connections to the pipe will rotate easily.
- Now it’s time to put tees on the top of the racks and connect them together with pieces of pipe in one line. This will be the top frame frame.
In conclusion, we need to solve a small nuance. The posts of the vertical bed must be covered with soil, and the growing strawberries must be watered. This can only be done on top of the frame. To do this, you will have to cut out windows on the tees of the upper trim opposite the inserted rack. Alternatively, instead of tees, crosses can be used for the upper base of the frame. Then, opposite each stand, you get a ready-made hole for filling the soil and watering the strawberries.
The frame of the vertical bed is ready, it’s time to make an irrigation system and pour soil inside each post:
- A simple device is made for watering strawberries. A plastic pipe with a diameter of 15-20 mm is cut 100 mm longer than the vertical post of the bed. Holes with a diameter of 3 mm are drilled throughout the entire pipe as densely as possible. One end of the pipe is closed with a plastic or rubber plug. Such blanks need to be made according to the number of vertical frame posts.
- The resulting perforated tubes are wrapped in burlap and secured with wire or cord. Now the tube is inserted inside the rack through the window on the top trim of the tee or cross. It is important to perform alignment so that the watering tube is positioned exactly in the middle of the stand. For fixation and drainage, 300 mm of gravel is poured inside the rack.
- Holding the protruding end of the watering pipe with your hand, fertile soil is poured inside the stand. Having reached the first hole, plant a strawberry or wild strawberry bush, and then continue filling until the next hole. The procedure continues until the entire stand is covered with soil and planted with plants.
When all the racks are similarly filled with soil and planted with strawberries, the vertical bed is considered ready. All that remains is to pour water into the watering tubes for irrigation and wait for the harvest of delicious berries.
The video talks about making a vertical bed:
Wooden vertical beds for strawberries from boxes
You can make your own vertical strawberry bed from wooden boxes in an environmentally friendly and beautiful way. To make them you will need boards. It is better to take blanks made of oak, larch or cedar. The wood of this tree species is less susceptible to rotting. If this is not possible, boards made of ordinary pine will do.
Vertical beds made of wooden boxes installed in tiers.This scheme allows you to optimally receive lighting for each plant. There are many ways to arrange tiers. Several examples can be seen in the photo. It can be an ordinary pyramid, not only rectangular, but also triangular, polygonal or square.
The box is made from boards. It is important that each box above the vertical bed with strawberries is smaller in size. The easiest way for strawberries is to make rectangular vertical beds in the form of a ladder. All boxes are knocked down to the same length. You can take it arbitrarily, although it is optimal to stop at 2.5 or 3 m. To make a ladder from the boxes, they are made of different widths. Let's say the structure consists of three boxes. Then the first one, the one that stands on the ground, is made 1 m wide, the next one is 70 cm, and the top one is 40 cm. That is, the width of each box of the vertical bed differs by 30 cm.
The prepared area for the vertical bed is covered with black non-woven fabric. It will prevent penetration weed, which will eventually kill the strawberries. A ladder of boxes is installed on top of the canvas. The boxes are filled with fertile soil, and strawberries are planted on the resulting steps.
Vertical beds for strawberries from old tires
Good vertical beds for strawberries or wild strawberries can be made from old car tires. Again, you will have to choose tires of different diameters. You may need to visit a nearby landfill or contact a service station.
If you find tires of only the same size, it doesn’t matter. They make an excellent vertical bed. It is only necessary to cut out a window on the tread of each tire for planting strawberries.After laying a piece of black agrofibre on the ground, place one tire. Fertile soil is poured inside, and a plastic perforated pipe is placed in the center. You will get exactly the same drainage as was done for the vertical beds made from sewer pipes. Strawberries are planted in each side window, after which the next tire is placed on top. The procedure continues until the pyramid is completed. The drainage pipe should protrude from the soil of the top tire to allow water to pour into it.
If you managed to collect tires of different diameters, then you can build a stepped pyramid. However, first, the side shelf of each tire is cut out from one side to the tread itself. Place the widest tire on the bottom. Soil is poured inside and a smaller diameter tire is placed on top. Everything is repeated until the construction of the pyramid is completed. Now all that remains is to plant strawberries or wild strawberries in each step of the vertical bed.
It is important to know that car tires are not an environmentally friendly material. They are more suitable for flowers and ornamental plants. It is not advisable to grow strawberries in tires, although many summer residents continue to do this.
Vertical bed made of bags
They started growing strawberries in bags a long time ago. Usually the sleeve was sewn from reinforced polyethylene or tarpaulin. They sewed up the bottom, and it turned out to be a homemade bag. It was installed near any support, fixed, and fertile soil was poured inside. Irrigation drainage was made from perforated plastic pipe. Cuts were made on the sides of the bag with a knife, where the strawberries were planted.Now ready-made bags are sold in many stores.
If you approach the process creatively growing strawberries, then a vertical bed can be made from many sewn bags in several rows. A similar example is shown in the photo. Pockets are sewn on the large canvas. All of them are small in size and designed for planting one strawberry bush. Such a vertical bed made of bags is hung on a fence or wall of any building.
The video talks about growing strawberries in bags all year round:
Growing strawberries in vertical beds made from PET bottles
They will help you create a vertical bed for growing strawberries without a penny of investment. plastic bottles capacity 2 l. You'll have to visit the landfill again, where you can collect a lot of colorful bottles.
On all containers, cut off the bottom with a sharp knife. A mesh fence will work well as a support for a vertical bed. The first bottle is attached to the mesh from below with the cut bottom up. Screw the plug loosely or drill a drainage hole in it. 50 mm are removed from the top edge of the bottle and a slot is made for the plant. Soil is poured inside the bottle, then a strawberry bush is planted so that its leaves peek out from the cut hole.
Prepare the next bottle in a similar way, place it with a cork in the lower container with already growing strawberries, and then attach it to the net. The procedure continues as long as there is free space on the fence mesh.
In the next photo, do-it-yourself vertical beds for strawberries are made from 2-liter bottles suspended upward with a cork. Here you can see that two windows are cut out in the side walls opposite each other. Soil is poured inside each bottle and a strawberry bush is planted.
You can make a vertical bed from any scrap materials. The main thing is that there is a desire, and then strawberries will reward you with a generous harvest of delicious berries.
