Growing your own strawberries

Home-grown strawberries are super tasty, and easier to grow than you may think. It doesn’t matter how much space you have, they can even be grown in a pot – let’s give it a go!

For this activity, you’ll need:

2-3 strawberry plants. We recommend the Strawberry Alpine variety as they produce tiny little strawberries that are very sweet
A large ceramic or plastic pot with drainage holes
Compost
Rocks/broken pot pieces for drainage
Straw
Netting

Step 1: Getting your pot ready

Make sure your pot is clean and add your rocks or pot pieces to the bottom so that water can easily drain away
Fill the pot with compost
Plan where you’d like to place you plants by making evenly-spaced holes

Step 2: Planting the strawberries

Gently remove the young strawberry plants from their pots
Place them in the holes making sure they’re not too deep – the part of the plant where the leaves start should be level with the soil

Step 3: Helping the plants grow

Find a good spot - strawberries need shelter from the wind and lots of sun
They need water every day, so if it’s not raining, you’ll need to water them yourself
Place some netting over the plant to stop birds snacking on your strawberries
Add some straw on top of the soil to let the fruit sit on – lying on wet soil can make them go bad
Remember to keep checking them every day, and pick the strawberries as soon as they’re ready