[solway cropper]

Today I got hold of some old car tyres which I'm going to use as strawberry planters. Having never grown them before I wondered if anyone could give me some advice on suitable varieties for north west England. We get quite a lot of rain and some late frost. I'm not looking for the finest flavour but something that will happily produce fruit in our climate and be reasonably disease resistant.

[Trillium]

Strawberries are so hardy that I suspect almost any variety would grow nicely for you up in Cumbria. The key is drainage and keeping them out of puddling soil, so the tires sounds like a good start. Perhaps put some coarse gravel at the base inside, then the soil. A bit of pea gravel to surround the plants to stop splashback, or good old straw and you should do fine.

[solway cropper]

Thanks Trillium, that's exactly what I intended to do. Dig out a hole under where the tyres will go, add a few inches of gravel then home-made compost and fill up the tyre with a loam based mixture. I'll just buy several varieties to give me an extended fruiting season and hope they like living up here.