Rain gutters filled with soil. I wouldn't place them as high as the ones in this picture though. Maybe the height of a sawhorse. 
Posted on 04/19/2013 1:07:02 PM PDT by greeneyes
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How do you keep the strawberries off the ground and away from bugs?
My wife and I used a hanging planter one year and that worked great but my wife can’t lift that sack of dirt and I’m not there to help in the garden.
She resorted to transplanting some of the berry plants to bowls and put them up on a retaining wall. She says the berries are coming in but the ants are having a field day.
Other than insecticide, what’s a good way to get a big sweet strawberry in the backyard?
Rain gutters filled with soil. I wouldn't place them as high as the ones in this picture though. Maybe the height of a sawhorse.
Oh wow! I would not ever had thought of that.
Thanks!
I have used straw with rosemary clippings added. For some reason, bugs hate the rosemary.
I’ll pass that suggestion on to my wife
I’d be tempted to use that to make cockie-garlcie, instead of cockie-leekie, soup. ;-’)
I won’t have pictures until tomorrow at least. It’s too cold and snowy to go out there today.
Now that they are starting to sprout, I am covering them at night if it’s below 45f. I have a clear plastic window-well cover, set up against the house, and that should do the trick. I need to check the GardenWeb forum again, to make sure I’m doing it right.
Oh how pretty! Violets?
What zone are you in?
That looks very healthy!
Thanks for the beautiful pictures you posted.
I mulch my strawberries with cardboard boxes covered with plain old pine straw.
Then I liberally sprinkle ‘sluggo plus’. So far, so good.
The solution to (fire) ants is, unfortunately, either the systemic pesticide applied somewhere OTHER than your strawberry bed (like all around it in a perimeter) OR finding the hills and using boiling water or some other physical solution.
I have one bed that keeps coming back in my strawberries. It’s a perennial problem. This year I’m going to replace that section of strawberries with a large (extra large) stepping stone. I haven’t even attempted to weed/thin that end of the bed yet. Hubby’s got to put the bad mojo on it this afternoon just so I can get in there.
I think the deep south is one giant fire ant bed with many many little entrances. I fear my whole house will disappear into a giant antbedsinkhole one day.
Since your strawberries are ‘up’ off the ground, you could sprinkle the broadcast ant poison along the wall itself.
Other than that I’m out of ideas too. If you live in the deep south the only fool proof way of dealing with fire ants involves, unfortunately, heavy weaponry. There aren’t any real indigenous counter measures for them. And they ‘evolve’ around those heavy weapons with unbelieveable speed.
I’ll end with this. Boiling water works. IF you’re VERY careful not to burn YOU AND the ants. My dad’s done it for years around his garden. He has a section of 1” or maybe a bit larger PVC pipe about 4ft long. He drilled about 1/4” holes liberally around the bottom 3ft of that. He tamps that into the mound as far as he can get it or 3ft whichever comes first, puts a great big funnel in it and pours gallons of boiling water into it. He’s also used other chemical means I won’t go into here. (Think ‘trench warfare’.) None of which are long lasting or systemic poisons. YMMV. MOST of the boiled mounds do NOT come back IF you can get a supply of ENOUGH boiling water at once.
I’m personally more scared of 3rd degree burns than I am of a small amount of broadcast ant poison. I’m clumsy that way. Just don’t walk barefoot near where you’ve put out the poison.
Now, all totally organic farmers who don’t live near fire ants can promptly expire from shock. One of my kids is allergic to them. At our house it’s a ‘stabbed or shot’ choice with ants/poison.
Hi fanfan,
I’m just learning how to post pics here. Took me over an hour to figger it out.....those are pansies. They overwintered in a container (shouldn’t happen-they say they don’t do well in pots over the winter) and we got lucky. Used miracle grow soil in the pot. We are in zone 7 now I believe-we used to be in zone 6b? but I think they recently changed it. Not sure. We can get winter temps in the teens and rarely in the single digits. So glad spring is on the way.
If you really want to get rid of fire ants in a hurry, use Orthene powder. Stinks to high heaven and is a bit pricey but there won't be a live ant after 30 minutes or so. I don't use it in the garden or where the pets play.
Thanks for the link to the seed companies!
We, too have been dealing with unseasonable cold and expect more in coming days, which means our babies are still in cups and boxes. We’ve been taking them out on good days to get “sun lunch,” as my Darlin says.
My baby seedlings are still surviving, most of them. The Great White Northern bean sprouts are really getting with it. Fava beans are doing well, but not crazy like the GWNs.
HELP!!!! My parsley and tomato sprouts are very small and at the two-leaf stage. Does it take these a while to get more than the two leaves?
The sweet potato sprout is still happy and overbalanced the little cup it was in, so Darlin’ put it in a soup can.
The amaranths are advancing, and ready to get outside once the bad weather passes.
One of the okra seedlings bit the dust, and we really don’t know why. It may have been damaged during being knocked around when taking it outside.
The sunflowers are happy, but one or two of them are bent over from searching for light. We have tried to remedy that, but it’s hard to without grow lights.
Learning to garden is a fun challenge, but full of humbling setbacks. I’m so glad for this thread so I can find such inspiration and encouragement!
http://earthbox.com/dealer-locator/
I found a dealer within haling distance from the above page. I haven’t checked out the product, but next time we are in town, I plan to!
I’m a newby at many of these things, especially asparagus.
I was gifted with some asparagus roots this year, but the weather has been so cool, we haven’t tried to plant it yet. She assured me at the time of the gifting that it was very hardy and would grow well in our area. I’m wondering if I’ll be able to do so in a couple of weeks.
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