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My niece recently posted a picture of this on FB. It showed several rows of rain gutters mounted on the side of a garage with everything from carrots to lettuce growing in them. I believe this is a type of "urban gardening" (self sufficient living in a tiny space basically). Anyone have experience with this type of gardening? It seemed simple and easy to do. Only concern I could see is the weight of the dirt and plants might be too much for gutters and they would fall / tear down (?)
There have been tons of them popping up, especially in the reuse and recycle gardening websites. There are videos and how to pages as well. It is a neat idea if you have both the ability to hang the gutters properly and garden in small areas. There are plenty of free hanging ones as well. I think in my neck of the woods the "gardens" would dry out far too easily.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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The problem here is that with 44" of rain from September-June, they would overflow regularly and the plants would suffer from root rot. We do sometimes find small trees growing in them when we clean them out, from seed of the cedars, firs, and alders falling. Gutters are not meant for the weight of soil, so unless they are reinforced, are likely to eventually fall off. Most have one long aluminum nail every 6 feet holding it up, you would need at least double that.
Would you be able to drill holes in the bottoms for drainage? I guess they would just drain down into the one below...the bottom one would always be soaked. I did wonder about the reinforcing...it did seem like a lot of weight.
There have been tons of them popping up, especially in the reuse and recycle gardening websites. There are videos and how to pages as well. It is a neat idea if you have both the ability to hang the gutters properly and garden in small areas. There are plenty of free hanging ones as well. I think in my neck of the woods the "gardens" would dry out far too easily.
Would you be able to drill holes in the bottoms for drainage? I guess they would just drain down into the one below...the bottom one would always be soaked. I did wonder about the reinforcing...it did seem like a lot of weight.
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