Transform Your Old Laundry Basket Into An Ideal Strawberry Planter

There are lots of benefits that come with growing strawberries in a planter. Firstly, a large planter full of bright red strawberries simply looks amazing. Also, growing strawberries in containers away from the main garden helps prevent plant conflicts as strawberries can't grow near raspberries and a few other plants. Lastly, when grown in a planter that can be brought inside and kept above 15 degrees Fahrenheit over the winter, strawberries (which are normally annuals) can become perennials that will come back year after year. Who wouldn't want endless strawberries?

However, while there are plenty of benefits to growing strawberries in large planters, the problem is that garden planters are often expensive. Luckily, you can easily make your own DIY strawberry planter out of a laundry basket. In fact, one of those tall laundry hampers that can be easily purchased at most big box stores can make for the perfect DIY strawberry planter with only a few tools — including scissors, a drill, and a burlap sack or garbage bag. Here's how to do it.

First things first, go ahead and get your laundry basket. You will want one of the tall cylindrical hampers with holes all along the sides. Once you've found the perfect basket, go ahead and drill a few holes in the bottom to help with drainage. Next, line your laundry hamper with a plastic garbage bag or a large burlap sack (this is meant to help keep the soil inside the basket and help retain moisture). Then, simply fill the hamper with potting soil or the dirt of your choice.

Now you are ready for planting. Because your laundry basket has holes all down the sides, you can start by filling every other hole with a young strawberry plant so they are stacked vertically all down the basket. To do this, cut a hole in the burlap sack or garbage bag with your scissors and then and then insert the young plant directly into the soil. It's a good idea to start from the bottom and work your way up. Then, when the sides of your basket planter are full but not overcrowded, you can go ahead and fill the top of the planter with more strawberry plants.

Once all your strawberries have been placed in the planter, give the entire thing a good soak with the hose and then set the basket in the sun.

When this idea for a laundry basket strawberry planter was posted on the gardening forum of Reddit, one commenter pointed out that the major problem with these types of planters was watering, saying that "you've got to really soak [the planter] to get enough water to the bottom but then all the water settles to the bottom and the bottom plants get too much." This unequal water distribution will be a problem because it will cause some of your plants suffering while others thrive, affecting your strawberry harvest in a not-so-ideal way.

However, the simple solution to this problem is a PVC pipe. In fact, by taking a PVC pipe and drilling holes all over it and then standing it vertically in the middle of your planter (then packing the soil in around it) you can easily solve this problem. This way, when you pour water into the central pipe, it will filter out through the drilled holes and evenly water the entire planter. If you don't have a PVC pipe handy, another Redditor recommended using an empty plastic bottle with holes poked all around it for similar results.