No matter how small or temporary your space may be, incorporating a garden is easy and rewarding. You may be surprised by all that you can grow in pots on a small patio.
This week, we planted out our “Patio Gardener” organic plant CSA selection.
The “Patio Gardener” consists of 2 tomatoes, 1 pepper, 4 herbs, 6 flowers, 6 strawberries, 1 cucumber, 1 summer squash, a 6-pack of lettuce and lettuce seed for successional plantings, 2 kale, 1 chard and 2 spinach plants. We look forward to watching our patio garden flourish throughout the summer, and we hope it inspires visitors and new gardeners to plants gardens in pots.
Enhance your surroundings with a pleasant and productive garden of fruits, vegetables and herbs.
At Sage Creations Organic Farm, we fill our nursery with rare and classic varieties of different plants that thrive in the Grand Valley. Our plant starts are healthy, grown organically and sustainably, because we believe that’s the best way to care for the earth and have success in the garden.
This year, we’re offering something new: Fort Laramie everbearer strawberries.
These perennial plants bear fruit continuously throughout the growing season. Grow these strawberries at home for a continuous harvest of sweet little fruits. Here’s how:
1. Prepare the soil
Fill your pots with quality potting soil. We like to use organic and natural potting soils with slow-releasing natural fertilizers mixed in. At the farm, we sell Black Gold natural and organic potting soil and use it in our own potted plants.
If planting in the ground, prepare a bed of loose and loamy soil in a spot that gets full sun. Strawberries can tolerate many soil conditions, as long as they have good drainage.
2. Rehydrate strawberry plants
Soak the roots of your strawberry plants in water for a few minutes to rehydrate them before planting.
3. Prepare a hole
Dig each hole deep enough so that the plants’ roots will not be bent.
4. Clean up the roots and crowns
Pull off the bottom portion of the plants’ roots so that they are loosened and have more room to grow.
Pull away brown and droopy leaves to keep the base of the plant from rotting.
Pinch off flowers, too, so that your plants can put adequate energy into becoming established.
5. Plant
Plant your strawberry plants so that their roots are making contact with soil, keeping the roots as straight as possible.
Fill in gaps with loose soil, keeping the crown of the strawberry plant slightly above the soil line. The crowns need to access sunlight and air. Add a layer of straw mulch to hold in moisture and make harvesting a bit easier, if desired.
Voila! Fresh strawberries all summer long.
Watch the video for the full planting: