DIY Tiered Strawberry Planter | Vertical Planter Box for Your Garden

This vertical strawberry planter is a perfect DIY project for growing strawberries in vertical tiers. It serves as a raised strawberry bed with 3 tiers of box planters – great for small space gardening.

Don’t forget to download this project’s cutting guide at the end of the post, to get the exact measurement I used for this project, for maximize the material usage with a budget.

Strawberries are one of the best fruits to grow in a compact space

Strawberries are probably one of the best fruits you can grow in a small space! It is just so beginner friendly.

Strawberry plans are so easy to take care of, and will reward you with lots of strawberries throughout the summer as long as you keep the water coming. It is also small space friendly because of the compact plant size and you can easily grow them vertically.

To buy strawberry plants, actually the cheapest way is buying them bare root, such as this one. This way is a lot cheaper than buying them from garden centers, since you’ll need to plant a lot of those babies to maximize your delicious harvest 🙂

Common questions for strawberry planter

What planter for is best for strawberries?

Strawberries can be grown in a variety of planters, such as raised beds, pots, or hanging baskets. The best planter for strawberries will depend on the space you have available and your personal preferences.

• Raised beds are a good option for growing strawberries as they provide good drainage and allow for easy access to the plants. This is great for people with lots of space since you’ll need a large raised bed to have a decent harvest of strawberries.
• Pots is one of the most common options for growing strawberries, especially if you are just starting out or live in an apartment. You can use any type of pot as long as it has drainage holes.
• Hanging baskets are a unique way to grow strawberries and are perfect for small spaces or for those who want to add a decorative touch to their garden.
• Vertical planter box. This is my favorite way and what this DIY tutorial is about. Growing strawberries in vertical planter boxes saves space and is easy to maintain. It is also super fun to see strawberries fruits spilling out from the planter box in tiers, making a beautiful display!

How deep does a planter have to be for strawberries?

In my experience, because strawberry plants are very small, and they typically have a lifespan around 3 years to produce fruits, you don’t need a deep planter for them.

So I suggest use planter that are at least 4-8 inches deep for proper root growth. However, the specific depth may vary depending on the variety of strawberry plant and local growing conditions. It’s always a good idea to check the label or specifications of variety you plan to grow.

The soil should be well-drained and fertile, and the plants should be spaced about 4 inches apart. However, you can pack them tighter or further depending on the container you have, as long as you keep feeding them nutrients regularly.

Grow strawberries vertically through tiered strawberry planter

To produce a lot of delicious strawberries, you’ll need to plant many plants at the same time. This is due to the nature of how strawberries are formed on the plants and the small size of the plants. So that means, traditionally growing strawberries can take a lot of horizontal space.

In my opinion, it is best to grow strawberry plants vertically. Nowadays, I see a lot of people use vertical strawberry planters, such as this stackable planter, and this ceramic planter.

Because we want to grow strawberries in our backyard, we would like to build a wooden strawberry planter to look more permanent and blend in better with our backyard landscaping, such as some wooden raised beds.

A couple months ago I discovered a tiered flower planter from Ana White’s website. And I thought: with some modification, a tiered planter will be so perfect for planting strawberries!

The planter box can be shallow and wide so that we can pack so many plants inside. Also because each tier is staggered, it would maximize the sunlight received. 

My husband and I were so excited and we ended up building this out on a weekend!

This is what this DIY tiered planter looked like in early March, when strawberries just started forming:

This is during mid April, that you can already pick up some ripe strawberries.

In my experience, strawberry is a very satisfying plant to grow as it produce fruits quite fast, and always taste delicious – so much better than those ones from the store 🙂

DIY tiered strawberry planter dimension and materials

Strawberry planter finished dimensions

The finished strawberry planter is 34.5″ wide and 24″ tall, with each planter box 31.5″W x 7″D x 5.5″H.

We put around 10 strawberry plants in each planter box, so around 30 plants for the entire tiered planter.

We have found it is a pretty good spacing for us. It allows us to have many plants to maximize fruit production, without being over crowded.

Tools

2″ screws (make sure to buy exterior grade screws)

Brad nails (exterior grade)

Brad nailer

Clamps

Miter saw

Wood boards

For the wood boards, we got some interior/exterior grade boards from our local Home Depot: 

• 1″ x 6″ x 8ft board for the 3 planter boxes that serves as tiers

• 2″ x 4″ x 8ft board for the post that will support the strawberry planter boxes.

The size and amount of boards was based on:

1. what size of boards are available in the store so we can minimize cutting.

2. What size of each strawberry planter box we wanted to have. This step helps to maximize the usage of each board, thus reduce the material cost.

The total wood board cost is around $30. considering how many strawberry plants we can tuck in there, it is a pretty good deal. We ended up plant ~30 strawberry plants there, 10 per tier.

How to build 3 tiered strawberry planter instructions

Are now you are ready for maximize your strawberry harvest this summer? If so, then building this three-tiered strawberry planter is a great way to do it!

With a little bit of time and effort, you’ll be able to create a unique and beautiful planter that will help you grow more strawberries vertically in a smaller area.

The DIY process was pretty straight forward. For the design, we were inspired by Ana White’s tiered flower planter plan, but made quite some updates in order to make it more ideal for growing strawberries vertically:

We optimized the sizing of this strawberry planter so it not only reduces material waste but also makes it more ideal growing strawberries.

We also used a stronger wood board (2×4) for the legs, so it can support the weight of the three planter boxes quite well.

And the end result is longer but shallower planter boxes – A perfect homemade strawberry planter for smaller garden spaces!

Step 1. Cut wood boards to size

Since this is a wooden strawberry planter, we got started on cuttong wood boards.

We used a miter saw to cut the wooden boards to size based on our calculation. To get the specifics on many boards we used and the sizes we cut, check out the build plan ebook .

Generally speaking, there will be two piles of boards, one pile for building three strawberry planter boxes, and the other pile contains five 2×3 boards which will be used as the legs and support.

Then you want to take out the bottom boards of each planter box and drill some drainage holes on them to make sure water can drain so the strawberry plants’ root won’t rot.

I drilled drainage holes for each planter box. You can use a bigger drill bit or a spade bit to do that.

Step 2. Assemble 3 strawberry planter boxes

Next comes to assembling three long planter boxes so later we can stack them vertically.

To make sure it is super sturdy, we first used exterior grade wood glue to stick those boards together. Then we used brad nails (also exterior grade) to secure them in place.

To finish it off, we screw some 2″ exterior screws close to the end of each sides. If you have pocket hole jig on hand, it would be even better to connect those boards together using pocket holes.

Usually when I use wood glue, I like to let it sit and cure overnight. In fact, wood glue can be stronger than screws if you let it fully release its power 😛

Step 3. Attach legs to planter boxes

After all the wooden strawberry planter boxes were assembled, it is time to add the legs to connect all three tiers together.

We attached the supporting legs with 2″ screws, starting from the top planter box.

Bar clamps always come in handy when we screw things together. We did pre-drill pilot holes first then used the screws. This will make assembly easier and prevent wood from splitting.

Then we attached the horizontal bar to connect the two legs. This will keep the legs together and also distribute the weight.

After that’s done, attach the 2 diagonal front legs.

This step is a bit tricky because you may find either the front or back legs slightly longer than the other. That’s why I recommend doing a rough cut first for the front diagonal legs, meaning leaving an extra couple inches for wiggle room (see picture below).

So position the front legs and make sure four legs and the planter are reasonably leveled (doesn’t have to be perfect).

A good trick is to use a bar clamp to clamp the front legs to the top planter box. Then adjust the whole thing by sliding the front legs, by leaving the extra bits hanging on top of the planter. Then you can mark the extra length with a pencil and cut it off.

Then you can attach the front legs with outdoor screws.

Step 4. Attach remaining 2 planter boxes

Once your wooden strawberry planter (which has four legs and one box) can stand on its own pretty well, you can attach the remaining two planter boxes.

This step is pretty straight forward. Just sandwich the box between two front legs, and use screws to secure them, while leaving an even spacing between each planter box.

We left about 2 inches between each box.

Step 5. Add strawberries to your homemade strawberry planter

Now you have done the hard work of building your very own homemade strawberry planter, and all you need to do now is to start growing strawberries!

Simply add some soil to your DIY strawberry planter and plug in bare root or fully rooted strawberry plants.

There are so many varieties within the strawberry family, and we have a hard time choosing them. So we ended up growing three different varieties, each on its individual tiers. We have Chandler, Ozark Beauty, and Seascape. Let me know what your favorite strawberry varieties is!

Here’s a picture of what our strawberries look like a couple months after this DIY project.

How to protect wooden strawberry planter?

Once you finish building this wooden strawberry planter, it is time to think about whether you want to seal the wood or not.

Because the board we used is interior/exterior grade, we didn’t bother with sealing the surface  (I have to admit we are always lazy at this step). After a whole season of rains, this strawberry planter did start to put on a weathered look. The wood color will turn gray, with some spots darker than the other.

It is still very sturdy, and we have been using it for several years without any issue.

So this is a personal preference! If you like a very new look and are not a big fan of rustic style, you might want to seal the wood to preserve the color with a few coats of water based sealant.

Here are a few exterior grade wood sealers options:

Alternatively, it would also be fun to paint it a nice color using exterior paint on the outside, if you want it to match your garden color scheme.

How to make a vertical strawberry planter summary

Building a vertical strawberry planters is a great way to add interest to your garden and maximize the space by using tiered planter boxes. With a few simple materials, you can create a tiered strawberry planter box that will look great and produce delicious fruit.

You can also find creative ideas online to help you design a unique homemade tiered strawberry planter, such as this by Spruce. Whether you go with a basic 3 tiered strawberry planter or raised strawberry bed, you’ll have a beautiful and functional way to grow your own strawberries outdoors.

I hope you enjoy this DIY tiered strawberry planter project and are ready to grow your strawberry plants vertically!

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