Open Immediately. Perishable. Live plants. Huh.
I took it to the patio and opened it up only to discover it's an Easter present from my mother who figured I'd enjoy this more than chocolate. She's right, but I think chocolate has a better chance of surviving in our house than a box of live plants. This is saying a lot since I love chocolate and my husband has a gargantuan sweet tooth, which he passed on to one of our children.
Nevertheless I unpacked the box to find a bag of dormant strawberry plants, two hanging bags, a sack of soil-less planting mix and some very basic instructions.
After reading the instructions about 20 times I decided to go to their website for help. It had step-by-step photos to show you how to set up your bags. It actually seemed possible to assemble this contraption.
Jace came out to help and as you can imagine, he was a HUGE help. A three-year-old and an inquisitive dog are really great assistants when you're assembling dormant strawberry plants.
I separated the strawberry plants and realized that it was hard to tell the roots from the plant at first. After picking through a couple I figured it out. Yes, I'm just that skilled.
I know I didn't follow directions perfectly because it involved spreading the roots out, which I had a very hard time with and watering the bag after each plant went in, which seemed entirely too messy. I managed to get all of the plants stuck in the odd little holes in the bag and then I watered the whole thing.
Then I spent the next 20 minutes holding the dripping wet sacks o' berries while walking in circles around the back of the house realizing that we don't have any hooks to hang the things from. Eventually I looked over at the pool and found two hooks that hold up our pool net so I hung them from there. This is by far the most difficult place on our entire property to water anything since it's on the other side of the pool fence, so obviously they'll have to be moved at some point.
I have zero confidence that these things will actually grow into strawberries, but we're going to give it a shot. I had no clue that strawberries went dormant and could spring back to life. I had no clue they could be grown in hanging plastic sacks. And I had no clue that anything could be grown in a soil-less mix. Guess we'll see what happens. Chocolate isn't this complicated.
Sidenote: Check back this weekend for some super-cute Easter pics of the chicks!
What a great present! Adorable helpers too! I'm sure they will do fine, curious to know so keep us updated please.
ReplyDeleteHooray! Baby picks over the weekend. :)
ReplyDeleteIs your mom into adopting? Cause I sure could use one of those strawberry hanging things.lol.
Ain't that nice...Your shepherd is just like mine - very curious! I really liked the picture of the "box person" ha! Oh, my entire garden is filled with soil-less mix. It works great!
ReplyDeleteWe have a sack of strawberries we bought already planted. It overwinters in our egress window. We get a berry or two and the birds and squirrels eat the rest.
ReplyDeleteI hope yours grow, and you can melt some chocolate to dip them in!
Hi! I've been searching the internet for help w/ my dormant strawberry plants that I got as a gift, & your's is the first that's come close to any hint of help. I have no clue which side are the roots & I don't want to plant these upside down! Are the long stringy things the roots or the hard knobby thing on the other side? Thanks so much for any help!
ReplyDeleteSuzanne - hope you check back here! But the stringy things are the roots and the stubby things are the plants. It's NOT easy to tell which end is up though, is it?? good luck!!
ReplyDelete