Hello all, I was hoping I could get your advice. I was given a box of 10 bareroot alpine strawberries on Wednesday and want to get them planted ASAP, I don't have any in ground space to plant them and ended up ordering a Mr. Stacky Strawberry planter (arrived today) since it could fit into a relatively small space. I want to plant herbs in half of the planter and strawberries in the other half. My question is would it be better to plant the strawberries on the top half or bottom half?

This container apparently allows the water from the top of the planter to drain into the lower levels but I am not positive how well that works and wanted to know if the strawberries or herbs prefer more or less water? One review said that a lot of water ends up collecting in the bottom tray and their strawberries got waterlogged there but I would be concerned about the bottom trays not ending up being watered evenly. I haven't had much successful experience growing strawberries but had better luck with herbs last year. I was planning on using a 50/50 mix of potting soil and perlite with O+ since I have an abundance of all left over, does this seem like a tolerable mix or should I adjust the ratios at all? I use 5-1-1 for my citrus trees and they love that but was hoping to use up what I had that I can't/wont use for my trees.

Here is the stock photo for the planter to give you an idea, It was easy, cheap and doesn't take much space so I figured I'd give it a try.