Sometimes we forget the original use for something. We have used strawberry pots to grow everything from a mixed planting of herbs to hens-and-chicks - only to rediscover that they are ideally suited to growing their most obvious crop: strawberries.

These strawberry pots were designed to give individual plants space they need to grow without competition from runners and to keep berries off of the ground where they are otherwise prone to decay. Alpine strawberries bear fruit throughout the season. The white variety will send out runners but the red variety will not. Pick the strawberries when ripe and eat them quickly; they don't improve once picked.

Materials:

Alpine strawberry plants, white and red
Soil-less potting mix
Pea gravel or turkey grit
Paper towel tube
Strawberry pot
Sphagnum moss
Time release fertilizer

Directions:

1. Place broken crockery or screening over drainage hole at bottom of pot. Strawberries need good drainage to discourage the development of disease.

2. Add one part gravel to eight parts soil-less mix. Mix in time-release fertilizer, per manufacturer's directions. Set paper towel tube vertically over drainage hole and fill with gravel. Begin filling pot with soil to first round of the pot's holes.

3. Set plants in individual pockets, leaving crowns slightly above soil line. Place some moist sphagnum moss around plants to hold potting mix in. Add potting mix to pot, working up to next line of pockets. Repeat planting process.

4. Remove paper towel tube slowly to leave a drainage column down center of pot and plant top of pot with more strawberries. Water plants in.