Remember Shawn? The guy with the windy, part-sun, zone 5 balcony? Well, he recently emailed me about these gutter gardens he saw on Life Hacker (thanks Shawn!).
This strikes me as an awesome way to grow a ton of produce in a really small space. If you can’t drill into your walls, you could try hanging several from a chain and having it do double duty as a privacy barrier.
In the article, it says that the creator of these particular gutter gardens grows lettuce, green onions, radishes, chard, beets and turnips. In addition, I think you could also grow most types of greens, like spinach, arugala, etc. Also, bok choy, chives, mint, thyme, oregano, cilantro, parsley…
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Hi Fern, what a simply great idea. If I had a sunny wall….. hmmm.
But I do have the other side of my brick fence, maybe I can come up with something interesting.
I will let you know.
Jen
Can’t wait to see what you come up with Jen!
OMG! this is a wonderful idea for small gardens
What a wonderful idea! I wonder if I could attach those to the sides of my mobile home. I have a lot of stuff growing in containers, but I’d like to grow even more in the space I have.
I have such a hard time keeping up with watering tiny containers; it seems like gutters would dry out quickly.
Of course, you could drip irrigate them with inline emitters and mulch them. That’d fix that problem.
I also wouldn’t like the moisture right up against my siding – but putting them on a fence would work! Or hanging could work, too, as you cleverly suggested.
It sure would be easy to harvest!
They are so cute! I’ll let someone else worry about the irrigation issues while I admire all those adorable lettuces lined up.
Have to agree about the faster drying out–do like the idea and the drip irrigation–curious about drainage and the stains down the siding if on the side of the house/garage, otherwise fences sound great if you have them.
Love this idea! We need to replace our roof & gutters – this is a great reuse idea. I have a sunny spot on a fence – or on the side of the garage??
Hi Fern,
At first I loved this idea, then started reading comments in the LifeHacker article about it. One concern is the possible lead content of the gutters.A serious concern – I’d get that tested and make sure the gutters are safe. The idea, though, is wonderful. It could be modified by hanging a support shelf from the siding and using containers known to be safe for food cultivation.
Genius! Love the way this looks. This is the kind of stuff you can sometimes find on the curb at construction sites.
I am flipping through page after page of your blog here and loving every minute. Great site! Am def. adding you to my blogroll.
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