Thursday, June 10, 2010

Gutter Garden and what's popping up

Gutter Garden!
Someone posted a link to this idea on Facebook a couple weeks back and I thought it was the perfect solution to our tiny yard. Buy 10 foot lengths of gutter, caps and clips. Attach a 10 foot length of board to your fence, attach gutter to the boards. Drill drainage holds in the bottom of the gutters, fill with dirt and plant shallow-rooted vegetables.

2 gutters on the right side of the yard:



And two on the left. I planted the right side ones almost 2 weeks ago. On Sunday I will plant the left side so that we have veggies growing at different times and to prolong the harvest. EDIT! I decided to plant this side today!




Week 1! Here comes the... ummmm... now what did I plant there??? I think those are onions! NOPE! They are radishes!



Onions!


Week 2! There is lettuce, radishes and onions in the top one:



Spinach, lettuce and beets in the bottom one.
I think.
I can't remember where I planted everything but those are the veggies I planted!

When they say to plant the seeds 2.5 cm apart, they weren't kidding. I have zero patience for something like that and just sprinkled seeds in there and covered them up. Now they are coming up in bunches. I'm going to have to get some tweezers and start thinning them out!



I can't believe how everything is coming! I planted everything less than 2 weeks ago. I'll post more pictures as the weeks go by so you can see how big they will get in the gutters. The key is to use shallow-rooted vegetables (google "shallow root vegetables" to find out what to plant), they need very little room to grow.


Just some other things growing around the yard:

Peas in the flower garden. I've been trying to grown a cedar in this spot for the last 5 years and every year it dies. I gave up this year and planted peas there instead. So far, so good!



Just some purple I-don't-know-what!
I know what now! It's Lobelia erinus! Thanks you!!


Gorgeous rose:


Lavender:


"Fibre Optic" ornamental grass:


Daisies: