All about strawberry pyramid beds

The pyramid beds rationally use the landing surface directed upwards, and not along the horizontal plane. This method helps to save the territory of the land plot. You can make a bed yourself from various available tools. In the article we will tell you how to do this, what types of pyramids are there, and how to grow strawberries in them.

The beds in the form of a pyramid are made from different materials, but most often from wood. The assembled structure is installed in a place prepared for it, covered with drainage and soil. A properly executed ridge has a drip irrigation system, the installation of which is taken care of even before the pyramid is backfilled with soil.

Now let's figure out what the advantages and disadvantages of the described design are. Let's start with the positives.

• The first thing that catches your eye is space saving. On a 1x1 m plot, you can plant a mass of strawberries, stretching the planting area up, just into the air, and not to the sides, taking precious land from the garden.

• It is easier to care for the pyramid, there is no need to bend over and squat.

• Backfill soil is treated from fungus, bacteria, insects, weeds. It requires almost no weeding. If healthy seedlings are planted, the plants do not attack pests and diseases, which are usually caused by infected soil.

• When watering the pyramid, excess moisture flows down and does not lead to decay of the roots.

• The slide is the first to receive the sun's rays on the site. In spring and on cold mornings, it warms up faster than horizontal beds, which strawberries really like.

• The berries located on the tiers hang from the pyramid without contacting the soil, therefore they do not rot and always remain clean.

• The structure can be made from improvised old materials, the variety of which allows you to dream up, show your creativity.

• A beautifully constructed slide, with green spaces and bright berries, attracts attention and becomes a real decoration of the personal plot.

The beds, made in the form of a slide, have their drawbacks, which it is better to know about even before the construction of the pyramid.

• You will have to spend time on the construction of the garden, and if you build it from new materials, then also money.

• The earth, isolated from the general soil, dries quickly, freezes and depletes. This means that you will often have to water and feed the garden bed. And in winter, in areas with a cold climate, you will need insulation for the garden.

• The problem with soil moisture can be solved by introducing a drip irrigation system into the pyramid, but this will lead to additional costs of time and money.

Tier slides for strawberries are built in different sizes, using all kinds of materials. Structurally, you can find many peculiar shapes, they are round, square, triangular, rectangular, multifaceted, stepped (in the form of a ladder) and complex geometry.

Frames for multi-storey flower beds are not produced in production, they are made independently, at home, using their own imagination. Therefore, you can find the most unpredictable options. Let's consider the most popular multilevel designs.

• Square. It is considered a classic design.It is their gardeners who most often install on their plots. The pyramid consists of square fences of various sizes, which line up in descending order, from large to small square. The height is not limited, but it should be remembered that the higher the structure, the more pressure it exerts on the lower square, and the larger it should be. If the pyramids are too high, it is difficult to care for the upper tiers due to the lack of the ability to get close.

• Squares can be used to construct more complex geometry., if each subsequent bed is installed not one above the other, but with a turn.

• Rectangular. By its structure, a rectangular multi-tiered bed is not much different from a square one. The flower bed occupies a large area on the land plot, but it also has more planting area.

• Triangular. The area of ​​a triangle is less than a square or rectangle. To grow enough crops on such a pyramid, it is directed upward using a multi-tiered structure. Due to the small bottom base, it is easy to reach any part of the structure, which makes it easy to care for the plants.

• Multifaceted. Small polyhedrons look aesthetically pleasing. Displayed right on the sidewalk, they become beautiful decorative structures for any site.

• Round. Round pyramidal beds are more like flowering flower beds. They look good and provide plenty of floor space.

If you fantasize, a garden bed directed upwards can be made from anything - wood, curbstone, hollow blocks, metal, it can be made from a chain-link netting or tires. Let's dwell on each material in more detail.

Most often, boards are used to make pyramidal beds. They rot in the ground, but this does not stop the skilled gardeners. Planks quickly and easily produce curbs of different sizes for an increasing structure.

Unlike wood, tires do not rot, they firmly and reliably hold the soil. Selected in various sizes, the tires form a sturdy, virtually eternal slide. But the beds from the same products also look good. In terms of aesthetics, tires are inferior to wood, and to improve their appearance, gardeners paint the slide in different colors.

The metal holds the soil well, but it corrodes and begins to deteriorate from moisture over time. To slow down this process, the structure is painted.

Garden beds made of bricks, stones, blocks and other concrete structures left after construction or repair look good. Hollow elements are especially suitable for flower beds, in the holes of which soil is poured and 1-2 seedlings are planted. Such a bed will definitely not rot and rust, it will last a long time until the owners themselves decide to get rid of it.

Vertical beds are built from roofing roofing, netting, agrofibre, from everything that you can wrap the soil in, tie it up and set it vertically.

A beautifully decorated bed can be installed in the courtyard of the house instead of a flower bed. It will become a decoration of the local area, as well as a source of delicious and sweet berries. In the courtyard, the pyramid is installed on the lawn, pebbles, sidewalk. The harder the base, the more stable it will stand. To prevent the pyramid from being skewed, the installation site is checked with a building level (spirit level). The detected irregularities are eliminated.

Wherever there is a high-rise bed, in the yard or in the garden, a sunny place is selected for it, otherwise it will take a long time to wait for ripe berries. If the base of the flower bed is in contact with the ground, even before installing the pyramid, the soil should be covered with a metal mesh, it will protect the plant roots from rodents.

When placing a garden bed, you need to take care of watering. The water source must be nearby, otherwise you will have to carry the water by hand.

Before you start assembling a strawberry pyramid, you need to find a sunny area for it, align it, draw a diagram, decide on the material (it will be made of wood, pipes, bricks, metal). You don't need blueprints to build a flower bed out of old tires. Then they perform preparatory actions.

1. First, they provide themselves with materials and construction tools. For work, you will need boards 25-30 mm thick and 25 cm wide, self-tapping screws, corners, a hacksaw or a jigsaw. The wood is impregnated with an antiseptic, for example, a 7% solution of copper sulfate, then covered with a stain. To process the material, use brushes or a spray gun.

2. The prepared area is covered with a netting, so that mice, moles, hamsters do not climb into the flower bed. The parameters of the net should exceed the size of the beds by 40 cm.

3. The net is covered with peat 10 cm high, through which excess moisture will be removed from the pyramid.

4. Then (after installing the structure) the prepared soil is laid on the peat in layers, alternating with compost.

5. The edges of the beds where strawberries will grow are formed from fertile soil treated from bacteria and fertilized.

The process of making a pyramid is determined by the following steps.

1. The boards are sawn out according to the dimensions indicated in the drawing. If the first square is 220x220 cm, then each subsequent one is 50 cm less - 170x170 cm, 120x120 cm. Such a flower bed, at the request of the gardener, can contain from 3 to 5 tiers (squares).

2. The boxes are assembled with self-tapping screws, the ends are reinforced with building corners.

3. So that a smaller box can be installed on a large box, 2 strips are fixed on the surface of each structure.

4. At this stage, the wood product can be painted in any suitable color. When it is filled with earth, it will be difficult to paint.

5. Next, they are working on a drip irrigation system. They take a polypropylene sewer pipe, make many small holes in it. Then foam rubber is placed inside the pipe, it will be saturated with moisture and evenly distribute it throughout the garden. The lower part of the product is closed with a plug.

6. The prepared pipe is placed vertically in the center of the pyramid. Sprinkle with soil on all sides, which will hold it.

7. The boxes are installed in turn, and covered with compost and earth. The soil should be slightly moistened with water to eliminate voids and soil subsidence.

Strawberries are planted in spring, summer and autumn. The time is specified according to the climatic conditions of the region. For example, in central Russia, seedlings can be planted in May, August and September.

The pyramidal bed will have little contact with the surrounding soil. Mesh-netting and curbs limiting this contact to a minimum. This means that in properly prepared soil, carefully selected seedlings will not actually get sick in the future.

But such beds also have a reverse side of the coin - natural enrichment of the soil will also not occur. This means that it is necessary to work with the soil before backfilling in the section of the garden. And you will have to feed the plants throughout their entire life.

To destroy microbes, fungi and insect larvae, the soil can be doused with boiling water before filling and then dried. Or use chemicals such as three percent Bordeaux liquid, potassium permanganate (4-5%), TMTD fungicides (50 g per square meter), Roundup (100 g per bucket of water).

It is necessary to work carefully on the composition of the soil, to feed it well, because in the future it will simply have nowhere to take nutrients. Both mineral fertilizers and organic matter are used as fertilizers:

• phosphates and potash fertilizers are mixed with the soil at the rate of 10-12 g per square meter;

• dolomite flour (200-250 g per 1 sq. m) is used if it is necessary to reduce the acidity of the soil;

• use compost or peat mixed with manure or chicken droppings;

• potash is prepared from ash, it is able to saturate the soil with many minerals;

• during autumn feeding, superphosphates, nitrophosphate or urea are used.

To harvest a high yield from a pyramidal bed, you need to plant varieties with a not too powerful root system that are resistant to drought and freezing. You should choose the types of strawberries based on the climatic conditions of your own region.

Before lowering the seedling into the ground, you should carefully examine it. Leaves (5-7 pcs.) Should have a healthy, even, rich green color. At the slightest suspicion of a disease, the bush should be postponed. In a virtually enclosed space of a flower bed, the entire plantation can get sick from several affected bushes.

It is better to plant strawberries in the evening at a temperature of 18-20 degrees Celsius. Before placing in the ground, the roots of the planting material can be held in a growth stimulator. But you can not do this, but transplant the seedlings together with an earthen clod.

In each tier, the beds are pitted to the depth of the root system of the seedlings. Their number should correspond to:

• the first tier - 7 plants on each side;

• the second - 5 bushes each (a total of 20 pieces per tier);

• the third - 4 seedlings;

• the fourth - three plants;

• the fifth - two bushes on all sides.

In total, there should be 84 strawberry seedlings.

Before planting, the recesses are lightly watered with water. Each bush is planted in a hole, sprinkled with soil, lightly tamped, removing voids and allowing the roots to contact the ground. It is important that after planting, the heart of the bush is not dug in, but rises above the soil, otherwise problems will begin with the plant.

If the strawberries are planted too early, you need to monitor the temperature readings. In anticipation of frost, the flower bed is covered with geotextiles or agrofiber.

In the future, watering is carried out once every 3-7 days, depending on the air temperature and the drying out of the soil. Fertilize the garden once a month. For the winter, the hill is covered with spruce branches or polyethylene.