Planting strawberries is a great project for kids because it teaches them many lessons (such as reusing materials and how to landscape with plants that provide food), and it is easy for small children to participate.
You will need:
* Some sort of container. I have used everything from wine barrels (rinse them out and drill holes in the bottom) to burlap sacks to the center tub of a broken top-loading washing machine. Just make sure the container doesn’t have any sort of chemicals in it, and do try to show the kids you can reuse materials instead of purchasing new or sending used materials to the landfill!
* Potting mix.
* Compost or garden mulch.
* Strawberry rootstock or seedlings. I have seen them sold both in flats/6-packs and as a bundle of rootstock held together with a rubber band.
* Bark chips or pebbles.
To start, fill the bottom container with bark chips or pebbles to allow the water to drain out. In areas with heavy rain, you will want a lot of drainage so use a lot (leaving only 8-12 inches for soil at the top to plant your plants in); in dry areas, you will want the container to retain water so use less (a layer only an inch thick). Explain the bark/pebbles to the kids by telling them plants need water to grow, but too much water can cause problems–kind of like how their fingers get shriveled up when they sit in the bathtub too long.
Next, fill the pot with your potting soil. You can teach the kids what goes into the potting soil by looking at the contents of it on the bag. Perlite or vermiculite is used to help the soil retain moisture; compost is added to give the plants nutrients; peat, ash, and other materials amend the soil and give it air spaces for the roots to grow in. Potting soil isn’t just a bag of “dirt” — it is an exact recipe, just like the kind you would use in cooking, that provides your plants with the ingredients to grow big and strong!
Now it is time to add the plants. Gently separate out the plants, explaining that rough handling can damage the plants and cause them to not grow. Show the kids the different parts of the plants, pointing out the parts that grow below the ground (the roots) and the parts that grow above the ground (the stems, leaves and fruit). Using diagrams such as these will help you to show the child how the plant will grow and what the different parts do. When planting the plants, dig a small hole, hold the plant with the roots inside the hole and the top of the root ball slightly below ground level, and gently fill in. To see what they should look like, look at this diagram.
Once all your plants are in, dress the top soil with some compost, mulch or straw, leaving a small space around the base of the plant. This will help keep the moisture in and invaders out. Your strawberries should be watered enough so that they are getting an inch or two of water a week, but not so much so that there is ever standing water on the soil.
Happy gardening and remember — We can make Earth Day every day!
Nikole Gipps is a web developer and mom of two in Eugene, OR. You can catch more of her gardening adventures at Oregon Treehugger.
