There's something especially summery and perfect about ripe red strawberries, but if you're going to the store to get them, you're paying too much.

Why not just grow your own?

"All you gotta do is basically dig a hole and put this baby in the ground," explains Steve Bender, Southern Living's Grumpy Gardener , in the below video.

Here's how to do it:

You can plant day neutral strawberries, ever-bearing and June- or spring-bearing strawberries . Ever-bearing plants produce fruit in spring and fall; day neutrals produce throughout the season; June-bearing strawberries produce the fewest but are the biggest, and Bender says they taste the best.

Planting as soon as the ground defrosts in the spring is the best, but you can plant as late as autumn for the next season, Bender says.

And when your buckets are full of berries, use them in these recipes: