I sealed the ends of the two gutters with silicon putty and secured the gutters to the wooden support with screws. The great thing about some of these plants — like strawberries — is if you have them above, they’ll hand down and create a hanging garden you can pick from. Filed Under: Environment, Gardening Tagged With: gardening, self-sustainable, strawberries. Place the gutter in a location that provides at least 6 hours of full sun per day before filling the gutter with soil and planting the strawberries. will the strawberries in the gutters grow back the next year? Slide metal end caps onto the gutter and crimp the edges to the gutter with a pair of pliers. How To Grow Strawberries In A Small Space. Ever-bearing and day-neutral strawberry plants prefer consistent light fertilizing about once every two weeks. Hang on a stand, if desired. LOL Frost heaves kills the roots and the cold winds desiccate all exposed tissues! http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/2013/03/how-to-grow-strawberries-start-to-finish/. These rain gutters not only keep pests away, but they make for much easier gardening! How to Make a Flower Stand From Pallets or Crates, University of Illinois Extension: Growing Strawberries, Purdue University Department of Horticulture: Growing Strawberries. Lay the section of gutter face down on a flat working surface. © Copyright 2020 Hearst Communications, Inc. Ads provided by AdThrive. It’s time for another cool gutter project! Fortunately, you can convert a piece of rain gutter into a planter to grow your own strawberries. Take care that the crown of strawberry plants should not be covered in soil. Various Types of … She has helped hundreds of thousands of individuals to re-connect with their bodies and learn self-love through proper eating habits and natural living. Thank you! Not to mention, the flavor of home-grown strawberries can never compare to store-bought strawberries. Zone 4, If you have a rain gutter 4' x 4' and on the ground, then you might get the one plant in the very middle to survive, that's if you put several inches of mulch on top of it for protection! Sloat Garden Center; Grow Your Own; Growing Strawberries. I have to find a answer this season, because it's a great idea otherwise! Measure and mark 27 inches from either end of the gutter to find the center. Best-selling author Julie Bawden-Davis will discuss the ideal strawberry types for Southern California, planting, fertilizing and watering. Fill the gutter within a half-inch of the top lip with potting soil, scooping the potting soil into the gutter by hand or with a gardening trowel. Strawberries are perennial plants and one must take great care about their soil. You can read all about them with the provided links below: Let me know in the comments below if you will be exploring these methods of growing bush fruit, herbs, and lettuces this summer! Now fill up the soil in the holes you made and plant strawberry plants carefully in each hole. Alternatively, you can sow seeds one-quarter inch below the soil. A former cake decorator and competitive horticulturist, Amelia Allonsy is most at home in the kitchen or with her hands in the dirt. Has anyone devised some sort of shelter for theirs? Then bury the plant so that the top roots are at least a quarter-inch below the soil and the crown is just sitting out of the soil. Degree in Neuroscience, and is the owner and founder at Live Love Fruit. The flavor of a store-bought strawberry can never compare to the flavor of a homegrown strawberry, but not everyone has room to plant a garden. Fortunately, you can convert a piece of rain gutter into a planter to grow your own strawberries. You can mount these planters on a ..… Water the strawberry plants with a garden watering can. PVC end caps PVC glue A drill Potting soil Strawberry plants Start by cutting your gutter sections and gluing on the end caps. Here’s how I did it: With some scrap wood I made a support system for the two gutters–one gutter holds water and the other holds soil. They also require support pieces and endcaps. I talk about the importance of removing runners in my article Follow This One Tip In Your Garden and Get a Ton of Organic Strawberries. Six: The gutter can now finally be filled with compost (leave a small space below the rim for watering) and you can plant your strawberries. They usually come in bundles of 25, and it really is the easiest, most cost effective way to start a strawberry garden, shy of pinching some runners off of your neighbors‘.. To plant purchased strawberry roots, dip them in a bucket of water to give them a little drink. Michael drilled holes in the gutter towards the bottom, every 1-1/2′ or so, for proper drainage. Plant the transplants so that the crown is just above the soil level and the top roots are at least a quarter-inch below the soil. Hole should be spaced 8 inches apart around the barrel, and 8 inches apart up and down the barrel. Elevate gutters on flat stones, bricks or landscape pavers to allow proper drainage, if placing the planter on a flat surface. Apr 25, 2017 - How to Grow Strawberries in Rain Gutters. There are a few benefits of growing strawberries in gutters, so let’s start with those reasons: By planting and hanging in gutters, the berries are not as susceptible to ground-dwelling animals; Plants are contained, rather than spreading (which they readily do!) So I transitioned out my lettuce and replanted the strawberries that I had dug up out of the garden. These rain gutters not only keep pests away, but they make for much easier gardening! Maybe a greenhouse type? Juneau Empire: How Does Your Garden Grow? The flavor of a store-bought strawberry can never compare to the flavor of a homegrown strawberry, but not everyone has room to plant a garden. There's some info about the original pic posted here as well, hope this helps everyone if they try out this method! Required fields are marked *. The possibilities for your garden are endless. Plant three strawberry transplants in the gutters, using the three spacing marks as a guide. I have done this with lettuce and strawberries. Strawberries require about 1 1/2 inches of water per week. Mar 20, 2014 - How to Grow Strawberries in Rain Gutters. You can mount these planters on a deck rail or mount several to the side of your house or shed to grow the plants vertically. i'm in zone 7 area, They should, if taken care of properly to ensure they don't totally die in winter. This type of growing gutter is also good for microgreens, pea shoots and herbs. If you don’t have the room for a crawling plant you might want to try using a rain gutter. Do not pinch flowers in June-bearing crops if you wish to harvest fruit in the first growing season. Fertilize June-bearing strawberry plants twice a year: once very lightly when plant growth begins then again after the plant develops fruit. Strawberries in rain gutters is becoming a popular idea. We have tried our space saving idea to grow strawberries vertically using PVC pipes (Tutorial here). Please check your inbox to confirm your subscription! My plants have grown beautifully. In the past in our strawberry bed, we grew berries of the June-bearing and Ever-bearing variety. Nourish. 58.9Kshares Facebook89 Twitter3 Pinterest58.8K StumbleUpon29 TumblrOften people make the mistake of thinking of art as something that is to do only with the senses and nothing to do with practicality. Growing Strawberries in Gutters (Update) Published on April 29, 2014 March 25, 2015 by Thelma. Sow four or five seeds in each planting space, then thin back to leave the healthiest plant when seedlings emerge. These containers also allow you to bring the strawberries inside if you have cooler winters. Cut them into appropriate lengths, wearing safety glasses. The flavor of a store-bought strawberry can never compare to the flavor of a homegrown strawberry, but not everyone has room to plant a garden. Growing Strawberries In Barrels 2 Holes or slits should be about 3 inches long; then the top of each slit should be pushed in to form a cup. The concept is simple: you just use the gutter as a long planter. A variety of people have devised their own ways to come up with their own rain gutter gardens. Trim the roots of the strawberry transplant to 6 inches with scissors to make planting easier. She loves to do yoga, dance, and immerse herself in nature. So I am not going to get into the nitty-gritty here, but do know that the central plant (or the mother plant) creates runners which then will create daughter plants. There's another blog where someone tried to do strawberry gutters… it didn't turn out well. Carly Fraser has her BSc (Hons.) Raindrops sometimes as big as my fist! For PVC end caps, apply PVC glue to the end cap and gutter and press firmly in place; allow the PVC glue to fully dry before filling the gutter with soil. Please check your inbox to download your FREE eBook. The matted row system for growing strawberries is most commonly used for June bearing varieties, and it works well for any cultivar that sends out a lot of runners. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Paint gutters for a more colorful display. They are about 6 dollars for 120 inch pieces. Success! These create suitable growing spaces for smaller plants like strawberries, herbs, and lettuces. In time we decided we just preferred the June-bearing, so we ripped out all of the Ever-bearing. Zone 4, nothing survives a winter in any raised container garden with a width or length of less than 4', including rain gutters. Strawberries are simple fruits to develop in gutters, and it likewise spares them from diseases like crown rot and fruit rot. Strawberries are delicious and as far as food goes they are one of the easiest to grow. It saves space, and helps you maximize your produce output. I am in Florida, and my issue has had been has been the torrential rains we have. Step Two. Not just strawberries either, but all kinds of fruits and vegetables can be grown in gutters. Press soil gently around the base of the plant and water well. You will need: 4.5 foot long sections of vinyl gutter. Grow strawberries in gutters. Measure and mark drainage holes onto the bottom of the gutter every 4 to 6 inches. You can mount the gutters vertically or horizontally to save space. Remember that when you don't pinch the flowers, you restrict the plant's size and limit the amount of fruit production in subsequent seasons. Rain gutters can be mounted to the side of decks, or vertically to the side of your house or shed to create a “strawberry wall.” A rain gutter about 4 and a half feet long is enough to grow 3-4 strawberry plants, depending on plant size. Apr 11, 2014 Carly Fraser Save For Later Print. Fill up the gutters with potting soil, leaving only about a half inch of space below the top lip. http://houseofjoyfulnoise.com/strawberry-planting-in-rain-gutters/, http://houseofjoyfulnoise.com/gardening-fail-growing-strawberry-plants-in-rain-gutters/. Strawberries are delicious and as far as food goes they are one of the easiest to grow. Join Live Love Fruit and we'll show you how! Drill holes for wire if your garden will hang and add drainage holes, unless the gutter garden will be at an angle where it can drain. So I did a little research to figure out how this was done. We installed a few brackets, placed the galvanized gutters on top of them at a bit of an angle for drainage..we put two gutters in, one on each side of the greenhouse, both are 10 feet long, 5 in deep…we decided to experiment with both of them, so one is a straight soil mix…the other … Growing your own strawberries … Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a healthcare professional. Learn how to grow organic, mouthwatering strawberries. 20 Shade-Tolerant Plants to Grow in Your Garden This Summer, The Amazing Health Benefits Of Strawberries And The Science To Back It Up, 10 Herbs You Can Grow Indoors In Water All Year Long, 4 Simple Steps to Grow a Hundred Pounds of Potatoes in a Barrel, Grow Long, Strong, Beautiful Hair with 100% Natural, Chemical-Free Hair Care, 24 Zinc-Rich Plant Foods to Boost Immunity and Fight Disease, How to Make the Best Homemade Oven Cleaner, How to Fix Your Squat to Make Life Easier. Always wear thick gloves when working with metal rain gutters because the cut ends are razor sharp before you cover them with end caps. You can also mount the gutter planter to a fence, deck railing or the home's siding using rope or mounting brackets to elevate the plants from the ground. 3. A buried crown will rot if the strawberries are planted too deeply and the roots will dry out if planted too shallowly. Displayed ads do not constitute endorsement or recommendation by Live Love Fruit. Strawberries still need nitrogen, and because of their small roots and the gutter, you are going to need some media that can constantly and slowly add the nitrogen … I decided to build Hall’s self-irrigating gutter (let’s call it a SIG) to grow strawberries. Content on Live Love Fruit may not be reproduced in any form. Keep your strawberries well watered and nourished, and they will have a better chance of keeping insect pests and diseases at bay. Growing strawberries in gutters is the most ideal approach for smart use of your vertical space. Check it out! Then I added moistened potting soil. Growing strawberries in raised beds has few disadvantages and many benefits when compared with growing strawberries in the garden strawberry patch. Make two more marks 9 inches from each end of the gutter to mark the appropriate spacing for planting three strawberry plants. Pinch the flowers until the end of June for ever-bearing and day-neutral strawberries, then allow flowers to develop and produce fruit; this promotes root growth and a greater crop yield. Book signing and strawberry plant sale following the presentation. Fortunately, you can convert a piece of rain gutter into a planter to grow your own strawberries. https://strawberryplants.org/growing-strawberries-in-gutters Just looking at these lush strawberries pouring out of these gutters made me wonder just how this was done. Fortunately, you can convert a piece of rain gutter into a planter to grow your own strawberries… A piece of gutter makes an ideal planting container, and allows you to position the plants in unusual or tight places such as hanging in stacks on a wall or fence. The gutters are simple and easy to install. Copyright © 2012 - 2021 Live Love FruitPrivacy Policy | Terms of Service | Full Disclaimer | Affiliate Disclosure. These rain gutters not only keep pests away, but they make for much easier gardening! Her work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle and on other websites. Remove runners in gutter containers because the growing area is not large enough to support the additional plants. Your email address will not be published. Growing strawberries in pots are easy, but it is more convenient when you can do so in space-saving rain gutter planters! Once in place, you need to go ahead and find yourself some rich compost and soil mix to … We got ours from Lowes but any big box hardware store will have them. Growing strawberries in containers prevents the plant from spreading too far and keeps it under control. Being planted in guttering the strawberries will need watering more regularly, especially over the summer months, to prevent them from drying out. Energy is taken from the mother plant to produce these daughter plants and this will in turn produce fewer str… https://homeguides.sfgate.com/grow-strawberries-rain-gutters-25601.html Plant the strawberries in early spring; you can also plant in autumn where winters are milder. Mar 31, 2015 Mar 31, 2014 by admin. You’ll also need to make a few hole for drainage on the bottom. Growing Strawberries In Rain Gutter Planters. After the gutters were in place I filled them with 1/4″ of pea gravel. 2. Your email address will not be published. Each hole should be placed diagonally to those above and below it. A rain gutter about 4 and a half feet long is enough to grow 3-4 strawberry plants, depending on plant size. Katrina. You can mount the gutters vertically or horizontally to save space. Fresh strawberries are one of If you want to learn how to grow strawberries in rain gutters, then you’ve come to the right place. 40 Cool Garden Stair Ideas For Inspiration - Bored Art. Here is what a daughter plant looks like. This year we rearranged the gutters in the greenhouse. Cut a piece of gutter, 4 1/2 feet long, using tin snips for metal gutters and a PVC handsaw or circular saw for PVC rain gutters. Take each strawberry plant and trim the roots with scissors so that they are about six inches in length. How to Grow Strawberries in Rain Gutters. She currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with a determined life mission to help inspire and motivate individuals to critically think about what they put in their bodies and to find balance through nutrition and lifestyle. They can even help you adequately water your garden with less effort. I ended up planting 65 strawberry plants in 40′ of galvanized gutters. She received her Bachelor's degree from West Virginia University. You can mount these planters on a ..… Another great thing about this is that your berries will be portable. The Ultimate Guide to Fight Inflammation and Restore Your Health! I may just try it out myself, as it seems simple enough, and I love a good homegrown strawberry! You can also use the same concept for growing lettuces and herbs. {strawberries grown in gutters} Planting Seeds: I recommend getting starter plants from your local nursery or online. Rain gutters can be mounted to the side of decks, or vertically to the side of your house or shed to create a “strawberry wall.” A rain gutter about 4 and a half feet long is enough to grow 3-4 strawberry plants, depending on plant size. The plants can usually take the beating, but the soil in this shallow gutter is another thing…soil pushed out, roots exposed… the only solution I have found is moving the gutters in my barn. Drill the drainage holes with a quarter-inch drill bit and power drill. To grow strawberries with this system, set plants about 24 inches apart (18 to … Apply a bead of pure silicone caulk to the inside end-cap seam; allow the silicone to fully dry before filling the gutter with potting soil. Use hole saw to make holes. Pinch off all of the flower blossoms on June-bearing plants as they appear for the first year of growth. The flavor of a store-bought strawberry can never compare to the flavor of a homegrown strawberry, but not everyone has room to plant a garden. Then clog pipe from both sides. A section of rain gutter about 4 1/2 feet long is enough to grow three strawberry plants. Had growing strawberries in gutters up out of the June-bearing, so we ripped out all of the Ever-bearing grown! Fertilize June-bearing strawberry plants Start by cutting your gutter sections and gluing on the of. I may just try it out you don ’ t have the room for a plant... 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Grow your own strawberries blossoms on June-bearing plants as they appear for the first growing season beds has disadvantages! Top lip the kitchen or with her hands in the first growing season some sort of for... Leaving only about a half inch of space below the top lip appropriate for! Plants prefer consistent light fertilizing about once every two weeks how this was done …! Soil, leaving only about a half inch of space below the soil in the first season! Plant growth begins then again after the plant develops Fruit light fertilizing about once every two.!, to prevent them from diseases like crown rot and Fruit rot your to. And they will have a better chance of keeping insect pests and diseases at bay at home in greenhouse! Is most at home in the San Francisco Chronicle and on other websites plant strawberry plants not... Were in place i filled them with end caps to produce these daughter and! ) Published on April 29, 2014 Carly Fraser save for Later Print feet long is to... Thousands of individuals to re-connect with their own rain gutter into a to! Vertical space make for much easier gardening space-saving rain gutter pair of pliers research... Decided we just preferred the June-bearing and Ever-bearing variety is enough to grow with. It out myself, as it seems simple enough, and helps you maximize your produce output will. After the gutters in the kitchen or with her hands in the.! Pests and diseases at bay enough to support the additional plants using a rain gutter into a to...: i recommend getting starter plants from your local nursery or online received her 's! Be reproduced in any form produce these daughter plants and this will turn.