This is a collection of practical ideas and tips, as well as inspirational photos of backyard strawberry garden designs.
You’ll find ideas on how to plant and grow strawberries suitable for large and small backyards and patios. There are tips on how to protect your berries and how to keep your plants moist. For a small garden, there are space-saving designs, as well as designs on a budget. We’re sure you will find some wonderful inspiration to try for yourself.
1. Strawberry Garden in a Barrel Planter
For a rustic, farmhouse chic garden design, try using barrels. It’s a whimsical addition to any backyard garden area and helps keep crops off the ground. The wood casing is surprisingly ideal for making a strawberry bed, protecting them from the weather and creating a good container to keep the soil moist. Use a hand saw to cut out a space of approximately half a barrel carefully. If you are particularly handy, you can repurpose the wood to make a stand for this improvised planter. Be sure that it is deep enough, about six inches, to hold the roots of the plants.
2. Irrigated Box Garden
This is an example of an irrigated box garden. It’s using black plastic tubing for the sprinkler system. This is a great way to water your plants without worrying about overwatering or underwatering them.
The plastic tubing ensures that each plant gets the same amount of water, and the wood planks help support the tubing and keep the soil in place.
This is an excellent option for those who want a traditional garden look and can work in individual sections. It also makes it easy to grow companion plants along with strawberries.
3. Strawberry Tower Netting
Netting provides protection for your plants! Use the common garden bird netting. If you’re looking for an efficient and easy way to protect your strawberry crop from birds and butterflies, then netting is the way to go. It’s easy to wrap around a tower, to create a barrier that birds and butterflies cannot penetrate. This type of netting is typically made from a lightweight yet strong material, such as polyethylene or nylon, and it won’t damage the plants.
If you live in an area where deer are a problem, netting can also help keep them from eating your strawberries.
4. Elevated Garden Box Design with a Mesh Top
Here’s an example of growing backyard strawberries in an elevated raised garden bed on legs, for easy access, especially for the elderly. Also, notice the enclose-able top is covered with metal mesh for protection. I would make sure to make the bed deep enough so that the topper can close with fully grown plants inside. This box design is perfect for keeping your strawberries where they belong – on your plants!
5. Gutter Garden Design
Consider a gutter garden if you want to add some curb appeal to your home! Gutter gardens are a great way to utilize an often-overlooked space, and they can be both beautiful and functional. Find a location with adequate sun and poke holes in the bottom, so they have drainage. This is an interesting design, with vinyl lattice panels on the back and nice PVC gutter shelves that look like they are designed to hold planters. This is a huge space saver.
6. Container Idea for a Small Patio
If you have a small patio, you may feel like your design options are limited. But with creativity, you can transform your space into a stylish and functional garden. One great way to do this is by using containers – pots and planters.
Potted plants can easily add color and life to your patio. Choose a mix of plants that will thrive in your climate and provide interest throughout the year. Also, consider adding some edibles to your patio garden for an extra pop of color and flavor. Herbs, tomatoes, and strawberries are all great options.
7. Strawberry Pallets
Wow, someone had a great idea. Maximize your vertical space with these super cool pallet strawberry gardens. Wood pallets serve as a potting shed wall and a fruit garden at the same time.
8. Ceramic Pocket Jar Strawberry Planter Ideas
This beautiful ceramic pocket jar planter can be used to cultivate your strawberries. Notice it has multiple places to plant individual plants. The beautiful blue color is fantastic for an attractive feature in any garden.
9. Strawberry Wall Design
This beautiful strawberry wall has some other herbs planted along with the fruits. Building one takes time and consideration. There are several methods of doing it. Here’s one helpful video.
10. Plastic Towers in Backyard
Many gardeners have these large 5 or 10-gallon pots lying around after transplanting trees. They are ideal for fruits like strawberries. You can cut a hole in the side, as seen in the picture. Or, if you have several, you can just lay them on their sides. Here’s one good DIY video showing how to build it.
For soil, you want to use a good quality potting mix that is well-draining. You can find these at any garden center. Add some organic matter to the mix, like compost or manure. This will help your plants to thrive.
11. Traditional Garden Rows
If your backyard is large enough, you could use the common row design to create a strawberry garden. It allows you to grow berries on top of the mounds, making sure that the roots are completely covered with soil. They seeded onions in between the strawberries on purpose – to deter garden pests that eat leaves and berries.
12. Grow StrawberriesIn Raised Beds In the Backyard
If you’re growing strawberries in your backyard, you might want to consider planting them in raised beds. Strawberries do well in raised beds because they have good drainage and don’t have to compete with other plants for nutrients. Plus, raised beds make it easy to keep the berries clean and free of debris.
Look at the image above. Every plant has lots of berries on it. This is due to the benefit of well-enriched soil in a raised bed.
Here’s a backyard garden design that includes a strawberry bed. There are six 4ft x 4ft beds in total, and some include support for a garden net and some for a greenhouse top. You can plant your strawberries earlier in the spring if you choose to build a raised garden bed with a greenhouse top.
13. Flagstone Stepping Stones for Easy Garden Access
A flagstone pathway was established around strawberry beds, for easy access. Come the harvest season, picking up berries will be easier.
14. Commercial Methods
These no-nonsense strawberry mounds put sprinklers in the middle and mulch with plastic to help the plants conserve water. This is the commercial method of growing them. The mounds help the roots reach deep and the plastic helps to keep the fruits clean. The blank space between the mounds gives you plenty of room to walk around. Built-in sprinklers deliver plenty of hydration. As you can see on the top right, they use a special attachment to a tractor to build the mounds. If your yard is big enough, would you dare to create a DIY strawberry garden using a similar mounds approach?
15. Make Your Backyard Garden Mobile
Nicely arranged pots help move your strawberries around and can help create more space in smaller backyards. It also allows you to protect your strawberry plants from the weather. Lightweight plastic pots are commonly used because they are the easiest to move. However, you can use any material you want. If you want to sell your plants, this method is a must!
16. Strawberry Pyramid Space Saver
This beautiful pyramid-shaped wooden planter box looks like a sculpture! If you are particularly crafty, you can make your own, and pre-made designs are also available. Going vertical may save some backyard space, but in reality, the pyramids are just for show. You could save even more space and have about the same number of plants growing in a DIY strawberry PVC tube planter, which is easier to build.
17. Simple Backyard Strawberry Garden
It couldn’t get any more simple than this! Clear out a spot of land and put in your strawberries. Be sure to evenly till your ground and add organic fertilizer or compost to give your plants the necessary nutrients. I would call this a wild strawberry garden, as it’s common for the wild strawberries to spread like this, carpet-covering the entire spot.
18. Strawberries Planted Around a Water Tank
The owners of this huge backyard created an attractive geometric design. It involves rows of strawberries planted around the water well – take a look. The symmetric lines are gorgeous, and it also helps create a more walkable design and also make it easier to organize your garden.
19. The Landscape Fabric Approach
These easy-to-do tarp designs help a pervasive problem many strawberry growers have, which is when the berries grow in size and touch the ground. Using landscape fabric (also called weed barrier) helps prevent dirt from getting on berries. It also prevents weeds in the garden and keeps the roots moist. Landscape fabric is permeable but will likely limit the amount of water from reaching the roots below the fabric. So you would need to think about how to allow adequate irrigation when planting with fabric. Also, every weed barrier has its expiration so my guess is that it would need to be replaced every few years, just as the strawberry plants would.
Cut a hole in the fabric and put your plants in! A diameter of about two inches should be enough to give the branches room to grow.
20. Net Covering the Pots
For many gardeners, nets are a must-have to protect the juicy berries as they grow. These have a lovely stone outlining the garden’s barrier, creating a more pulled-together look. Also, notice how it is supported by simple bamboo sticks for a lightweight design. A few extra rocks keep the net to the ground.
21. Netting the Strawberry Patch
Keep some of your berries for yourself at home and keep the birds off with garden netting. You can cover the entire small strawberry patch by hanging the net on a few strategically located wooden posts. Then hammer a couple of wooden stakes through the net to hold its edges down to the ground.
22. Decorative Strawberry Garden Idea
Beautiful, ornate planters like this add charm to any garden. You can hang them in a patio area or screened porch area. They’re a stress-free way to grow a few strawberry plants, and you may even be able to keep something like it inside.
