This week I’ve been posting about a backyard project that involves vertical gardening! It was a fun one that actually went 100% according to plan! (That can’t be said for all of my projects!) Often I end up improvising somewhere along the way.
The project involved putting up an arbor and running spray painted gutters between them to serve as planters.
A commenter asked in one of the previous posts if I thought this would work on an 8 foot span. The answer: I don’t think it would without some sort of extra support. Once soil, water, plants, and the weight of the gutter themselves is factored in I believe some bowing would occur in the middle of an 8′ or longer span. However it would be very easy to attach a piece of lumber underneath the guttering to provide that support.
For planting the gutter I used a mix of peat and compost then picked two six packs of Wave™ petunias. Purple and white were the colors we picked. Fortunately pink and purple passed muster with my daughter who might have really preferred the pink petunias. Wave petunias are known for their spreading and sprawling habits which make them perfect for this gutter garden. In a few weeks we’ll have a waterfall of petunias raining down on top of the ‘Powis Castle’ artemisia you see in the picture!
Thanks to Lowe’s Creative Ideas for inviting me to participate in these projects! Next month we’ll working with one of these two themes:
- Good Looking and Good For You – Which involves combining edibles and ornamentals into an attractive and function garden.
- Furniture Fun – With this project we’ll be sprucing up an outdoor area with a new creative piece of furniture or fixing up and refurbishing something we already have.
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I think you should do "Good Looking and Good For You". Maybe do an edible surrounded by it's pretty companion plants in a way that looks "designed". That's my vote:)
That is very clever Dave.
Dave, you need to realize that improvise's are what we refer to in woodworking as 'design changes'. That way all projects are completed 100% as planed. I do like this design and see it replacing some of our flower boxes. As for next month, go with the garden plan. Don't go to far afield from your primary field of expertise.
I might try this in my own garden! Well done, Dave!
Keep us up to date on the status of the flowers growing in the metal gutters. I'm wondering if the heat of that metal will make them need water more than you or mother nature can give them.
Dave you have done a great work. Definitely I would like to follow it..
Great project!