Your strawberry garden is the perfect place to repurpose old household items. Check out this list of 10 items that could be used to enhance your strawberry garden.
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Small round organizer baskets
Use a small to medium-sized organizer basket to hold strawberries off the ground, away from pests and rot. While the berries are immature and still growing upright, cut out the bottom of the basket and slip it carefully over an individual plant like a mini trellis. As the fruit matures, it will get heavier and hang over the sides of the bottomless basket without touching the soil.
Wire Wastebasket
A cheap wire wastebasket, new or old, makes a great cloche to protect your strawberries from birds. Simply turn the wastebasket over and place it around an individual plant. Add a decorative handle to the bottom of the basket if you wish or leave it plain.
Flatware
Hang old forks and spoons from a colander or driftwood to create a whimsical windchime and scare away pesky birds. An old spatula works well as a pendulum to catch the wind and clang the rest of the flatware together with each breeze.
If birds are your main concern and you don’t want to build a wind chime, your old forks and spoons can still be useful. Push the handles into the soil around your strawberries 2-3 inches apart to make it uncomfortable and difficult for birds and furry pests to steal your ripening berries.
Tall Laundry basket
A tall laundry basket makes an excellent DIY planter for many strawberries in a small space. It will keep the berries off the ground and easy to water and harvest.
Cardboard
Remove any tape from non-glossy cardboard boxes to use as a weed suppressant. Instead of buying black landscaping fabric, lay down old cardboard boxes, cut evenly-spaced holes, and plant your strawberries in the openings.
Weeds won’t be able to grow through the cardboard and ripening berries will stay clean. As the boxes break down, they become food for the plants, soil, beneficial bugs, and worms.
Aluminum Foil
Mulch
Did you know you can use aluminum foil as a mulch? Lay new or used sheets of foil around strawberry plants and anchor them with small rocks.
The foil locks moisture into the soil, reduces soil temperatures in hot climates, and prevents weed growth. It repels pests like slugs and insects and the shiny surface can scare birds away as well.
Scare away birds
Aluminum foil makes an excellent visual scare device to repel birds. Hang strips of foil from strings suspended above your strawberry plants. As the foil moves in any breeze, it will catch the sunlight and startle birds who may try to steal your berries.
Milk or juice jugs
Make a mini-greenhouse for your strawberries in case of an unexpected cold snap or to ripen late-season berries using an empty drink container. Cut the bottom off of a gallon-sized milk or juice bottle and fit it securely around your strawberry plant.
Coffee grounds
Coffee grounds are useful for so many plants, including strawberries! Sprinkle them around the base of your strawberry plants to use as invigorating plant food or a sugar ant and pill bug repellant.
Tea bags
Used tea bags are also an excellent source of nutrients for strawberries. Brew a weak batch of tea from used tea bags and water your strawberries with it to protect susceptible plants from fungal infections. Bury used tea bags to repel mice and cats and damaging insects.
Banana peels
Banana peels make an excellent fertilizer tea that is particularly useful to encourage vigorous flowering.
Do you have any of these items cluttering your space or headed to the trash that could find a new useful life?
pamela
how do you keep deer out of garden, cheap and easy way.
Mary Ward
Deer can be tricky and it’s hard to deal with them cheaply because it usually takes significant fencing. You can try some of the deer repelling powders and sprays that out there or try hanging bars of soap of dryer sheets around the garden, which messes with their sense of smell and makes them think there are humans around. If you need to step up from there, the cheapest fencing solution may be two strings of electric fence with a fencer attached to electrify it. Place one a couple feet off the ground so it bumps their knees and another higher fence set a few feet back and at about four feet. Deer can be really hard to control, even with fencing.
Thole
Great information indeed. Thank you so much.
I have my strawberries in pots and they are infested with ants. How do I get rid of black ants on my strawberry pots?