We love strawberry jars. They look great in the garden or along a path, and nothing beats a fresh strawberry. But it can be challenging to keep the soil in strawberry jars evenly moist. Most jars are made of clay, which tends to dry out easily. Since strawberries need a lot of sun as well, they’re also usually positioned in the sunniest spot in the garden, exacerbating the problem. The design of the strawberry jar also makes it difficult to get water out to the sides of the container where the plants’ roots are. Together, this is a recipe for drying out your strawberries.

You can solve this problem with a simple trick: creating vertical irrigation pipes that direct water to flow out horizontally. In this video, Fine Gardening assistant editor Daryl Beyers demonstrates how to plant an easy-to-water strawberry jar that alleviates the problem of dryness while maintaining the shape of the plants.

The process

Begin by determining the size of PVC pipe you’ll need by measuring the height of your container and the diam­eter of the opening at the top. Choose a pipe that is approximately a quarter of the diameter of the top opening. You can figure this out by tracing the opening of the jar on a piece of paper and taking the paper to the store with you. Take a section of pipe, and stand it in the center of the tracing. If it seems like there’s enough room left to fit some small plants around it, you’ve found the right size. If rather than strawberries you want to center one large plant at the top, use three smaller pipes instead, and place them close to the rim for a larger planting space.

The materials

• Tape measure or ruler
• Strawberry plants (or a combination of other plants)
• One or three PVC pipes, depending on what you plant at the top
• Hacksaw
• Electric drill with a 1/4-inch drill bit
• Cork or rubber stopper for the bottom of the pipe