Back in London, I used to spend hours looking through Pinterest for ideas on vertical gardens – trying to make the most of the space we had. One of the things I always wanted to try, but that we didn’t have enough sunlight for back then, is making strawberry drainpipe planters. It seems like such an amazing idea – using a drainpipe with holes cut in it to give you multiple plants in the space you’d need for one… And luckily for me, John is usually pretty happy to give my crazy ideas a go!
We bought our first drainpipes back in the Spring, and cut nine holes in each. We had some plants kindly donated by my parents and by some friends – the latter who also helped us plant them up on one of their visits. And then we propped them up against the shed wall and left them! We had a few strawberries grow over summer, but hadn’t thought to cover them with a net, and so our garden birds enjoyed most of them. But the plants are looking pretty strong and happy in their drainpipe homes, and we had a crazy amount of runners from the strawberry plants in the kitchen garden, so we decided to make some more!
Our new drainpipe order arrived this weekend, but as we have so many outdoor jobs we’ll wait and make them on a rainy day. The greenhouse has now been taken over with strawberry plants though, so it’ll be nice to get them out of the way!
Once our building work is complete and we’ve opened, the plan is to put them around some of the barns so that guests can help themselves. We’re hoping they’ll be low maintenance for us, and a nice little extra for our guests!
Ley Farm Cottages 