I have always wanted to grow strawberries but we have far too many snails and slugs in our garden. We have nowhere to hang hanging baskets, and strawberries need lots of sunlight and hanging space.

Then my husband picked up some pallets and I had seen some converted pallets on the internet. We did a bit of research and I adapted the design to the materials we had.

We decided to staple some left-over weed membrane to the front of the pallet, then fold it and staple it to the back of the pallet, making a large flat grow bag that we could use vertically.

Once he had stapled it, we filled the bag with compost. (I buy peat free compost due to environmental concerns over peat mining.)

Then I bought strawberry plants – 5 different varieties to test them out.

I cut a slit in the weed-protector for each plant and carefully transferred it in. I then watered the whole thing (gently). I noticed that the water doesn’t travel from the top to the bottom, so made sure every plant was watered every other day at least.

The strawberry types I planted are:

Elsanta: 6 across the bottom

Cambridge: 6 across the second row

Honeoye: 3 on left, Symphony 3 on right, across the third row

One Cristina, one Ostara, one Elsanta and three more Cambridge on top row.