Strawberry Tree - Part 3

Back to Part 2
 
Now that you have your materials and tools ready from Part 2, the next step is to trim the pipe ends. This may or may not be required for you. My pipe was cut off with a chainsaw and was rough and not square. So at this point the first thing to do is to trim the least amount of material off the pipe ends to make them square. I used a level and a speed square to mark a circumference line. Then used the skill saw to cut that line. Once both ends are squared up and clean we can start laying out the holes where the strawberry plants will be planted.
 
Choose an end to be the bottom. I made 4 evenly spaced points about 10" from the bottom. That was my first row of holes. The next set of holes will be above the first by about 7 inches. Rather than the holes lining up vertically, I offset each row by about 3 inches to the left. This forms a slight spiral of holes up the pipe. My main reason for this was so that the above plants did not hang directly into the next one below. My topmost row of holes ended up about 4-5 inches from the top. Keep in mind that you can also plant a few plants directly in the top of the pipe to squeeze a few more plants in!
 
Continue to Part Four - Cutting the holes