I've always planted client's strawberry pots for their aesthetic potential, like the one pictured above, but I actually planted strawberries in mine. I mixed them with nasturtium, that have edible flowers that can be tossed into salads, and with purple verbena to attract bees.

There are 3 different kinds of strawberries you can grow: June Bearing strawberries produce one large crop in early summer. These are the biggest berries and their root system is on runners and the plants spread easily. The other two, Everbearing and Day Neutral produce berries all summer. These are smaller berries, but still very sweet. The ones I have go from flower to ripe berry quickly.

Strawberries will grow well in anything from hanging pots to windowboxes, but a raised bed planter is probably the most ideal. I just like the novelty of putting strawberries in a strawberry pot. To plant the strawberry pot, I layered the bottom with some broken up Styrofoam for lightweight drainage. (I always save Styrofoam from packages for this. I just heard a great tip for seed saving. Keep the packets of silica that are usually in new shoes. Tuck one of these in with your seeds to keep all the moisture away from the seeds. But more on seed saving later.)

Then I cut a piece of landscaper's cloth and layer this over the Styrofoam--this is to keep the soil from draining out. Then I add potting soil, mixing in a cup of worm castings and a tablespoon of water crystal gels. Then just tuck the root balls of the plants gently into each section and pat the dirt back down around them.

When these fruit ripen, I snip a little fresh mint and add them both to yogurt. Last month's Ready Made magazine has a simple recipe for homemade yogurt. DIYer's Click Here

Keep in mind that often large amounts of pesticides are used to grow strawberries. According to the Environmental Working Group website, pesticides were found on 90 percent of the strawberries tested. This website provides a list of fruits and vegetables that have the most pesticides and the least pesticides in them, so when deciding what to go organic on, refer to this. But with strawberries and a few other things on the most contaminated list, like raspberries, you can grow these in windowboxes, so you don't even need a yard to grown your own.