Rain Gutter garden beds

Former Iowa resident Suzane Forsling uses rain gutter to plant her vegetables in.

"I am from Iowa, so I have an inherent need to grow vegetables. Each winter, I dream up ways of trying to garden in Juneau's environment which, so far, has really frustrated me.

Courtesy Of Suzanne Forsling

Nothing I tried works very well. Like many homes in the Juneau area, our yard has its problems. We live near the glacier, so the soil is cold and has very little organic matter, there are lots of big trees shading it, and we have all the slugs and root maggots anyone could want, with porcupines, cats, bears and ravens meandering to boot.

There is only one side of our house that gets much sunshine, and, of course, that side of the house has the smallest yard. It is really just an alleyway between ours and the neighbors. I might eventually put in some cold frames, but can't really afford that this year with all the extra money going to the high energy and food prices.

So my brain has kept working the issue, even while I was asleep. One morning in late May, I woke up with an idea that seems to be a real solution for our situation, and I thought it might help others as well. I had heard about people using rain gutters around deck railing at a master gardener class that I took this past spring from the Cooperative Extension Service.

But our deck is on the wrong side of the house. Then an idea came to me that was a little unusual and might involve a little risk. The idea is essential this: Why not put rain gutters in rows along the wood siding on the sunny side of the house. It might look weird, but that was where all the heat, sun and protection from damage is best. I talked to my husband, Pete, about it and he agreed it was worth a try.

We went to Home Depot and selected some "attractive" brown plastic gutters along with all the required parts so that we could mount them in one long row. (The total length or a row would be about 20 feet). Pete drilled some very small holes in the bottom of the gutters to let excess water drain out after he mounted them on the siding.

I filled the gutters with Miracle Grow Garden Soil to about half full. I put in some time release fertilizer and added the other half of the soil (the extra fertilizer was needed because I knew that frequent watering would drain out the nutrients quickly).

I packed the soil in firmly since the plants wouldn't have a lot of it to grow in. Then I put the seeds in and watered it well. I also allowed water to run down the back side of the gutters (on the siding side) this time only, so that any soil left would be in the gutters and not hidden behind them to cause damage to the siding.

From then on, whenever I watered I was careful to only water in the gutters, attempting to keep the siding dry. It wasn't hard because I used a watering wand attachment that I could easily control the hose output with. I also only watered enough to keep the seeds wet, so that the ground near the foundation of the house wouldn't be too wet either.

The seeds I used were these: Simpson lettuce, variety lettuce, French breakfast radish, Swiss chard, beets and turnips. I also bought some green onions from the store and trimmed the roots and stuck them in the soil here and there to re-root.

The seeds opened like clockwork and turned into abundant seedlings. The radishes were ready in several weeks, delicious, beautifully red, white and long, as they should be. The Simpson lettuce is the best I've tasted. We put in two more rows of gutters under the initial row about two weeks later and planted it similarly.

We have salad every night now, and the turnips have lots of greens for cooking as well. I am about to replant the top radish row for a second, and likely a third crop. We should be able to have fresh greens etc. every year from June through at least Sept. I also have ideas about how to extend the growing season as well."

Some possible modifications

1. Add a plastic cover and create a mini hot house
2. Put perforated sheets in before dirt for drainage
3. Use a hanger that permits gutter to lift off.  You could start seeds inside and move 3 ft gutter sections outside at the appropriate time.
4. Place them in an off set step manor. Then have trailing plants at ends that cascade into the gutter below

You’d probably want to leave the end caps on (so the soil doesn’t dump out the end) and drill holes to drain, but that is going to depend on what you are planting.

Hydroponic Method

• Use slanting gutters and fit with full spectrum tube/neon lights. 
• Plant plants in seedling trays, which fit snugly into the gutters.
• Circulate water through inter-connecting the levels of gutters and completing the circuit into a reservoir drum.
• Use a water fountain pump plugged into a timer that runs for 15 mins an hour to circulate water
• Add in an air pump, with 6 lines out, bubbling fresh air into the circuit at various points to aerate the water and reduce the residue formed by the wet environment and roots.
• Strawberries, lettuce, and other leafy herbs do well
• Roots eventually break out of the seedling trays, but it isn’t uncontained enough to entangle other roots much, so you can still harvest without a lot much trouble.

Some other information about planting in rain gutters:

Recycled kitty litter buckets mounted on vinyl rain gutters.


Rain Gutter Garden On a Deck Produces Amazing Results

Images of rain gutter garden ideas

Growing Vegetables in Rain Gutters from Seed to Harvest