If you have a relatively small area, you want to plant everything and a lot, vertical beds are what you need. There are lots of options for designs, materials and forms for such plantings. This article will tell you about the self-made vertical beds for strawberries.
Advantages and disadvantages of vertical garden beds
The undoubted advantages of these beds include the saving of land space: A garden bed can be made along a fence, against a wall of an economic extension, in a garden in the form of a flower bed, suspended on a terrace or a verandah. You can create a whole vertical garden on one square meter.
Vertical beds will allow you to control the amount of moisture coming to the strawberries, and prevent overwetting. In addition, the plant root system, which is above the ground, will be protected from sudden changes in temperature, from freezing in early spring. It will be quite convenient to wrap such beds with film. During the care of landing there is no need to bend, everything is available and close at hand. 
Vertical beds can be made from any available materials, even from plastic bottles, because they also make strawberry stands from plastic bottles so that the berries do not rot, lying down on the ground. That is, they are profitable from a financial point of view. Production of beds does not require complex technical skills and time consuming.
The disadvantages of such structures include nutritional limitations. If the vertical beds for strawberries are made from small containers, for example, from plastic bottles, the amount of soil there is small, the roots experience some starvation. Feeding in such plantings are carried out more often.
Important! By the disadvantages include the fact that with such cultivation in the winter strawberries can freeze, so it is desirable that the beds were mobile.
Options for the manufacture of vertical beds: from which you can create a design
As already mentioned, you can make vertical beds from any available materials: from plastic bottles and pipes, from old wooden barrels, baklazhka, from tires, from old furniture (drawers), you can use construction pallets, racks, flowerpots for pots, bags - all that lies idle. How to make a bed for strawberries, consider further. 
Did you know? In the British Paignton Zoo is a vertical farm for growing various crops for the inhabitants of the zoo. The peculiarity of the farm is that plants are grown without soil, in a special hydroponic substrate. Zoo workers are proud to talk about the fast terms of growing crops in this way and the joys of their wards, who receive fresh greens all year round.
Vertical bed with tires
You can make a bed for strawberries with the help of old tires. Tire size is not important; if the tires are of different sizes, you can make a bed in several tiers.
Tires to start clean, wash and dry, then carry out painting in the desired color. Next, on the sides of the tire cut holes, preferably at the same distance. To create the construction, you will need a plastic pipe, the size of which should correspond to the height of the intended bed. In the pipe also drill holes around its entire circumference and height.
The first tire is installed, a pipe wrapped with synthetic fabric is placed vertically in its center, and the ground is filled up. Further manipulations of the same kind are carried out with all existing tire-tiers. When the flowerbed is ready for use, water is poured into the pipe, which flows into all tiers of this bed. Strawberry bushes are planted in the holes made in the tires. 
Vertical pipe-shaped bed
Strawberries can be successfully grown in plastic pipes left over from repairs, let's see how to do this.
To do this, you need pipes of different diameters: one not more than 2 cm, the second not less than 15 cm, and more preferably.
Holes are made in both pipes: in a wide pipe, the holes must be larger in diameter (for planting strawberries), and smaller, respectively, smaller (for water). The height of the pipe depends on your desire, it can be many pieces half a meter high, staggered on a mesh fence. A narrow pipe is inserted into a pipe with a wide diameter, then the soil is poured.
Vertical beds for strawberries made of plastic pipes are convenient because plastic does not overheat in the sun, and it is easy for pipes to find a location and fix them. 
Interesting! The first plastic and plastic products appeared as a result of scientists searching for substitutes for natural materials for various industries: ivory, wood, and mother-of-pearl. The substance was made on the basis of natural organic materials, such as rubber. At the beginning of the 20th century, synthetic plastic was obtained on the basis of phenol-formaldehyde resins.
Vertical bed with a rack
You can make high beds for strawberries with your own hands using shelving. Shelving can often be seen in greenhouses and not only with strawberries. The rack can be bought ready and, having determined it in place, put on the shelves pots of strawberries or containers. And, by the way, if you install racks with strawberries in the greenhouse, the period of cultivation will be significantly reduced.
You can make a multi-tiered bed for strawberries yourself in the form of a pyramid. To do this, the boards can knock down square shapes of different sizes. Smaller to put in a large on the principle of matryoshka. After filling with earth and planting strawberries, when the bushes grow, you will get a flowering pyramid. Wooden structures can be made in the form of an octagon. It will also be spectacular. 
Many-tier, you can make the beds of strawberries in plastic bottles. The bottle is cut along, leaving a part of the bottom untouched and a neck with a cork so that the earth does not spill out. Bottles tight rows fixed on the wall of the fence, a row above the row.
Vertical beds of bags
Strawberries in bags are also a simple and economical way of vertical beds. Bags for strawberries can be used from dense polyethylene, from burlap, you can sew from any dense matter with your own hands.
Bags made of natural fabric will be the most durable and suitable for plants, as they breathe and have good carrying capacity. It is desirable to stitch the sides and bottom of the bag several times with a strong thread.
The bags are filled with soil, the slots are made for planting strawberries of 15 cm in size. A strong loop is sewn in the upper part of the bag, by which the bag will be attached to the support. Strawberries are planted in holes made and watered. You can place the bags in staggered order. 
Strawberry planting into cylinders
Since the popularity of vertical gardens is gaining rapid momentum, there are special designs for sale in hardware stores for gardeners. The shape of the structures is cylindrical, convenient holes with a small protrusion are made in the tank. Soil is poured into this tank by adding peat and sand, bushes are planted in the holes. The convenience of purchased cylinders is that the protrusions under the holes support strawberry bushes as they grow, the plants do not hang down somehow and do not break under the weight of the berries. For the winter, the cylinders are covered with agrofibre.
"Pocket beds"
The pocket garden was invented by foil-insulated agronomists. The demonstration at one of the agricultural exhibitions aroused the interest of many gardeners, and the design became popular. This multi-tiered bed for strawberries can be made with your own hands.
Production technology:
- For a bed of two meters in height, the material needs four meters (no matter what height of the bed you make, the material comes in two lengths). Putting the material in half, we horizontal horizontally, retreating 5-7 centimeters. This is done to be able to hang the bed.
- Next, leaving the upper edges of the stitched backstage, we stitch the edges and the bottom of the material, thus making the bag.
- The entire surface should be marked out into rectangles, not more than three per meter of material. Along the marking lines - stitch, retreat from the seam about 3 cm and make a semicircular slot. Then these vertical beds during watering will receive moisture flowing down the cut valve, so the cut in a semicircle is more convenient than a straight cut.
- Into the upper link we insert a rigid tube, hollow inside, in order to stretch the twine. Twine ends are tied to a support. In our pockets we fall asleep nutrient substrate and plant strawberries, water.
Attention! To keep the moisture longer in the vertical beds, gardeners use hydrogel with soil. This avoids frequent watering and concern about dry soil in tanks.
Hanging bed options
Hanging beds - also a kind of vertical garden. It is possible to make such beds, using the majority of the same materials, as in vertical landings.
For example, plastic pipes. The pipe is cut along, the ends are closed with plugs, it turns out a chute into which the soil is poured and strawberries are grown. The gutter with the help of twine is fixed on the visor of the veranda or farm building, or on the tree. The length of the gutter can be chosen convenient for you; you can also make several levels of such gutters. 
Vertical grid bed
The bed from the construction grid does not require a lot of skills. The desired length of the material is rolled into a ring, the edges are fixed. Along the edges of the grid is covered with straw, you can use a dense film, but with a straw it turns out more interesting and more natural. Drainage is placed at the bottom of the ring, then the ground, bushes are planted on the sides, gently pulling the foliage through the mesh cells. Then a layer of straw - soil, strawberry on each side. The number of layers depends on the height of the mesh ring.
Peculiarities of growing strawberries in vertical beds
Vertical beds are best placed on the field, if there is no such possibility, let it be an illuminated area without a shadow of large trees, strawberries need a lot of sun. If the planting is properly located, they have enough light and heat, moisture, then you can collect a large crop: up to 12 kg from one bed. The composition of the soil in the beds is important.
The plant in most cases is limited in access to nutrients, such as, for example, in beds of plastic bottles. The capacity is small, the soil is small, so you need to take care of the soil in advance: sandy, humus soil would be the best option. 
The same applies to moisture: in small containers the ground will often dry out. To avoid possible problems, gardeners use the addition of hydrogel in the ground.
Care of vertical beds requires a minimum of effort: they do not need to be weeded, no need to cover the soil under the berries, so as not to rot, berries are difficult to reach for snails and small rodents, and harvesting does not require bending in three deaths in front of the bushes.
Creating original beds for strawberries with a no less original design will give the site an aesthetic look, unusual beds will also become an element of decor.
