Help your child grow their own strawberries

Strawberries are the quintessential summer fruit, and the good news is you don’t need a lot of room – or experience – to grow them, making them the perfect fruit for children to grow.

What you need

• 1 x strawberry pot
• Multi-purpose compost
• Piece of broken pot or some polystyrene
• Strawberry plants

How to grow them

1. Help your child place a piece of broken pot or some polystyrene in the bottom of the pot. Then fill with multi-purpose compost up to the same level as the first holes.
2. Push the plants through the hole, so that the roots are inside the pot. Let your child fill the pot with compost to the next level of holes, pushing firmly around the roots.
3. Continue planting until you reach the top, then water.

Top tips

• Place the pot in a sunny position and encourage your child to turn the pot occasionally, so that the plants grow evenly.
• Ensure that your child checks that the compost feels dry before watering, and then give their pot a good soak.
• After your child’s strawberry plant has fruited, cut back the leaves and give them a feed with a balanced fertiliser. This will promote growth and new leaves will soon appear.
• Use mulch to keep berries clean, conserve moisture, and control weeds.