davholla wrote:

I have got a strawberry barrel but unfortunately the instructions
have got damaged. What should I fill it with? A compost and grit
mix? I have ericareous and normal compost what is best?

It's been at least 20 years since I helped build a strawberry barrel
and don't recall there any trick to filling it. We used black dirt
and manure on top of a 1" (25mm) bed of gravel. You should cut and
perforate a length of PVC pipe to put upright in the center of the
barrel for watering. The pipe should at least 2" (50mm) in diameter
and be cut to at least 1" (25mm) above the soil level. The
perforations I drilled were 1/8" (3mm) and 4 holes per inch. The
pipe was then filled with gravel.

I have never read or heard the word "ericareous" before.
Please take a moment to explain it.

BTW I live in London, UK and our tap water is quite hard.

The barrel I helped build was in Chicago which gets colder
than a mother-in-law's heart and was moved into a moderately
heated garage to protect it from January nights at -20C to
-30C (that's not a typo). My father moved it with a tractor.
But I have no idea of how cold a winter night in London can be.

As for the tap water: as long as it is outside, rain water
should be ok unless you have severe taxic rain.

Dick