I opted for the Strawberry 'Alice' variety from Thompson and Morgan, these came as runners, now I had no idea what a runner was, so after some quick internet research, I sort of understood what these were and how to plant these, for when they arrived. Luckily when they did arrive in early march, they had long roots and I was able to plant them up straightaway in the hanging baskets.
I started with a fresh basket liner, then I added multi purpose compost with water crystals mixed into each of these and then planted 6 runners in each basket, three around the outside of the basket and three in the top of the basket. These were then given a good soaking of water and hung up on the sides of the Balcony.
Within weeks they started to flourish, out of the twelve plants I only lost one, which isn't bad and once these started to grow to a substantial size straw was placed around the inside of the baskets and I created a bamboo bracket that I attached to the top of the basket wall bracket and then attached fruit netting to this, to protect then from birds.
As these continued to grow I did start to notice they were becoming covered with small green insects (aphids), again I when back to the internet had a little bit of a browse and found a homemade soapy solution I could use on these to get rid of them, see Tips of the Day section.
Much to my delight we are now in the beginning of July and both of the baskets have produced a great first batch of Strawberries, which are currently turning a ruby red colour.
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