Strawberry Fields Forever
Strawberries are excellent runners (and they have much better pace times than Kermit and I do at 5:30 am). A runner plant will grow an "arm" that it carefully plants in nearby dirt to create a daughter plant. This cloned plant will grow up to be a fully functional adult plant and put off it's own offspring. Don't be confused, you can grow strawberries from seed. Running is just a more energy efficient plan that nature gave strawberries (and many other plants) for rapid propagation (I'll write another post about this later). Runners love vertical planting. They can easily drop a runner into the soil that is hanging just below. For this reason you will often see strawberries and other runner type plants doing exceptionally well in pyramid type planters.
This one has not yet been populated yet. It's raining here today so I will transplant as soon as the weather breaks.
This blog is brought to you by *announcers tone* "RAIN; the natural phenomenon that helps propagate life on earth (or drowns it, depends on the level)."
Now, about this structure. I started off with a set of amazing plans from the Etsy shop johnmarc33. You can buy a copy for yourself right here or search "Woodworking Plans - Pyramid Planter - Illustrated with Photos!" on Etsy.com. This plan was worth every penny. Let me show you how this went together.
These are the tools I used.
Some supplies are slightly different than those proposed in the plans. This is mostly due to availability and food safety (see 'Important" below).
I happen to have access to a nice compound miter saw and I could not locate the screws in the supplies list. The glue was not on the list and I replaced the "post and post cap" with a single post that had a finished top. 1 small hiccup (the only challenge I had with he instructions) was a small shortage of 2x4. I was about 10" short which resulted in a quick jaunt to my local Menards.
The MOST IMPORTANT supply swap: The supplies list uses treated wood. Treated wood is NOT recommended for raised beds that contain food intended for human consumption. Treated wood can leak toxins that are absorbed by roots and grow trace elements into the edible fruit or vegetable. For this project, I used UNTREATED cedar. Cedar is naturally bug resistant and has a stout longevity. Although treated wood may last longer, the toxins are not worth it.
Now, lets talk about the screws I used. The instructions clearly state to pre-drill. My screws are self drilling and I still found that pre drilling did a better job of preventing wood splits.
When pre-drilling be sure to choose the right size drill bit. You can do this by lining up the drill bit with the screw. When you line it up on the underside, you should not be able to see much, if any of the drill bit. When lined up on the top of the screw you should be able to see the threads fully but not the barrel. This will assure there is room for the screw without splitting while leaving enough teeth for the screw to bite with.
The first steps to this planter create the base frame.
When I built the external base frame I used the triangle squaring tool to help me make the corners straight. This was probably not really needed since there are angle supports added later, but it madE me feel better and kept me from having to make later adjustments. Here's a little tip on making your cut marks. Instead of a small tic mark use an arrow to show the 'point" that needs cutting. Then using a straight edge draw a full mark to align your cutting blade on.
Once your frame and pyramid support are built you will move onto the "shelves". These require a compound angle. This is VERY clearly explained in the plans and has a wonderful pictures demonstrating how much of an angle and where they those angles belong.
Set your miter saw to the proper angle. I recommend using a bit of scrap wood to identify where your blade lands in the finish. The goal would be to have a clean sharp corner. In the picture above the blade is currently placed so that it will cleaning skim the corner of the board leaving me a nice sharp corner that does NOT SHORTEN my board. These shelves need to be equal lengths to create the squares, so it's important that you cut the miter without cutting the length. After the boards are cut and angled you will line the corners up to assemble. I used a scrap of 4x4 to lean the boards against and wiggle them into alignment. Once you have done a "dry fit" (no glue or screws yet), add your glue and wiggle it back in place again.
Pre-drill your connection points. I chose to use three screws instead of two on one side. When adding the screws I found it useful to keep the head back about a centimeter, add the others and then tighten gently. This keep the board from sucking down and off the corner. When I perform this little detail I had offset boards and had to back the screws out and work much harder to keep the clean corners.
I was so proud of myself for getting this all together, I just had to fit it all together to see if it actually worked.
The shelves are not screwed on. They just sit in place. Later the dirt does a great deal to secure them.
I placed my planter on cardboard (my favorite form of weed blocker/direct compost, more on that in a later post).
Fill the bottom of the planter (before adding any shelves) then add shelves as the dirt reaches them.
Level each shelf as you go. I found that my shelves were surprisingly level from the design itself. Very little wiggling got it just right and the dirt held it snuggly in place.
Two hundred and eighty pounds of dirt later this planter is ready for my running juicy jewels. For plans shop here.
Happy Planting.
