Friday, June 22, 2012

My Hanging Gutter Garden

Early in the season, I cleared out a sad row of shrubs that were struggling alongside my garage. There was a lack of sun and water in the area, so we cut down some major tree limbs to let the light in, and I installed a soaker hose. The soil was amended with some good manure and compost, and the plants went into the ground.


Then the bugs moved in! Slugs and pill bugs and earwigs, mostly, and I knew my tender lettuces and herbs didn't stand a chance without changing the plan. So we developed the HANGING GUTTER GARDEN (concept by me, and many before me, with a little help from my friend Google; and design and build by my strong and handsome manfriend, Brian).


The first build failed, resulting in all three gutters, and a coupla hundred pounds of soil, crashing down on each other. With some design and stabilization adjustments, they're back up, a few weeks strong now. The plants are thriving in this location. They get the right amount of sun, some nice air movement, and they are up and away from the worst of the garden buggers.


I planted a pretty good variety to see what would take. In the top, which gets the least amount of sunlight, I have sage and a variety of lettuces. The other rows have arugula, kale, chard, strawberries, thyme, and radishes.

On the far ends in the ground are broccoli and my overachieving cucumber plants (seen the middle photo)--they are getting signs of a few pests, but my midnight bug checks have been fruitful, and the beneficial insects (mostly lady bugs, praying mantids, and spiders from what I've seen) seem to be keeping things in check. These plants are extremely healthy. And we're starting to fill our plates with the lettuces and arugula at this point in the growing season.

What do you think? Is this a good use of space? Or is my hanging gutter garden trashing up my yard?


3 comments:

  1. I forgot to say that the gutters were $6 a piece at Lowe's! :) Can't beat that.

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  2. No; not "trashing up" your yard. They look good. If I recall, that garage wall faces south? Our garden is planted against our neighbors' south-facing garage-side, otherwise I'd consider this innovation! Very nice. Happy that you're enjoying it so much.

    Amanda

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  3. Your garden looks great!! Did you use the feeney cross clamps or find something different

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