Wondering about gutter gardening

[dandelionchick]

Wow its cold! Can't wait for spring so of course I already have seedlings in flats which normally is fine. I throw a blanket over things at night and usually they don't freeze but they did last night with temps in the single digits but amazingly all looked great this evening when I put them to bed. Sooooo...looking forward, I was reading about gutter gardens for strawberries and greens. I think they'll do great in spring but has anybody on here used them? How well did they work and were they easy to keep watered in the summer?

 

[NwMtGardener]

Flats of seedlings?! I'm thinking we're in different zones there was a member who posted about just putting up a gutter garden, but we never got any feedback about how it worked out from them. :/

 

[ninnymary]

Dandelionchick, what state are you in? Zone?

Mary

 

[dandelionchick]

Sorry it took me so long to get back. Taking care of critters in bitter cold wore me out! I'm in zone 7 in the upper right hand corner of Georgia. It got 7 degrees here but all our critters are fine. We have a mini farm with chickens, ducks, goats and rabbits.
I tunnel garden during the winter. I have cabbage, kale, collards and chard in the tunnel. The collards are showing some stress but everything else looked fine so far. My daughter got me this nice little greenhouse for Christmas. I have an aquarium in there I keep my seedlings in at night. I put them in it and throw a blanket over them and I'm shocked to say my seedlings look fantastic!! I have Lacinato Kale, Calendula, Italian dandelion, couple of lettuces and some mustard. First time growing the L. Kale, i'm excited about that. It'll be interesting. I had some spinach seedlings out in the tunnel outside but they are gone and lil mouse foot prints left behind. Grrrrr! So I'll plant some more. I got a neat heirloom variety called "Monster of Viroflay".
I was excited about that one. You don't have a very long growing season for spinach here in Georgia. Dang mouse! LOL I ordered from Bountiful Gardens and so far the service was great and the seeds are great.

Anyway, I'm rambling, LOL. I dug up my Tennessee Beauty strawberry plants because we have pillbugs and slugs so bad that I never get a berry unless they are in a pot. I want to be able to make some jam but we've been here almost 8 years and still battling bugs. I saw a thing on the gutter garden for strawberries and thought about trying that. Also considered a kiddie pool or the hanging bags or even a pallet garden. LOL, I've given this a lot of thought! I'm determined to have strawberries this year, by gosh! I have 25 of the TBs and a few Ozark Beauties. What would you do?

 

[ninnymary]

Dandelionchick, it looks like you have a lot going on there. Lots of animals and gardening. Sorry I don't have any ideas for your strawberry gardening. I have a small bed of them and slugs sometimes get to them. I think this spring I will add straw as a mulch to see if that helps. They don't produce that many but their main purpose is for my 6 preschoolers to see how food is grown. But there are a lot of more experienced experts here who I'm sure will come up with some ideas for you.

Mary

 

[majorcatfish]

i believe carol dee did some lettuce in gutters last year...

 

[digitS']

I think you are onto something, DandelionChick! Pillbugs and slugs can climb but I know for a fact that they appreciate food on the ground about 1,000% more than food up in the air!

The person putting so much effort into her gutters was in San Diego, if I remember right. And, it was to grow lettuce. A tender crop in a dry place -- my guess, it didn't work very well for that TEG gardener.

Higher humidity, perennial plants - I can't help but think they'd have a better chance. I know that some greenhouse outfits have grown strawberries in large pvc pipes.

Steve

 

[Lavender2]

I looked into container strawberries a few years ago, when I gave up the war on the slugs, weeds, and deer.

Day-neutral, Ever-bearing and Alpine Strawberries are more suitable for growing in containers than June-bearing varieties. I have the same concern with keeping them watered in shallow gutters without some type of self-watering system. I have an abundance of hanging pots and may try some this year, up near the house where I can keep them watered easily.

I think if I were to try the June-bearing again I would do a raised bed and be more diligent with slug control, maybe organic slug bait. Pill bugs feed more on dead plant matter so more than likely the slugs are the bigger problem.

I have grown lettuce in a bit deeper window box containers and it worked great. I was able to move the containers to part shade when it got warmer and I think it extended the harvest a bit.

 

[Carol Dee]

Yes I did lettuce in gutters last year. It was not a great success. I think DH got some soil from the ditch to fill! Then it was a HOT DRY summer. And since they where right out in the sun all day they would dry out very fast. The lettuce remained very small . The garden was not close to water. ( 2miles from home.) And we collect water from shed runoff. When it would rain. No rain meant hauling water from home. A chore! So needless to say they did not get the water they required. To many wilted days took their toll. I think it might work if they got dapple shade or late afternoon shade and plenty of water.

 

[dandelionchick]

Thanks everybody. The pillbugs I have love greens and fruit. I forget which one I have, there are different kinds and I happen to have the one that thrives on green foods. These guys destroy seedlings. I'll have to try to take pics of them later when they come out.
My biggest problem has been getting plants big enough so the pillbugs and slugs don't kill the plant. I cut up soda bottles to make collars for every seedling and place it around seedlings at planting time. This keeps the pillbugs out but not the slugs. The slugs are easier because I can hand pick them or spray with ammonia water. That works great. Hmmmm Collars might work for strawberries if I found something big enough. What the pillbugs do is eat the leaves and I mean they have killed chard plants (just to name one) 6-8 inches tall! Once they pick something, they are relentless, you find them and there are a bunch all over the plant. Its creepy. They just cover it!
One of the interesting things I read about them was that they have a bitter taste to them. Aha! That's why the chickens won't eat them! I had read that ducks and Muscovy ducks in particular will eat them. I found some about a month ago and now have some Muscovy ducks and there were still a few pillbugs in my redworm bin and YAY they will eat them!! We built a pen that sits on the beds for the ducks, we have coyotes here that would gladly eat my ducks but so far so good, they have cleaned 3 beds so far. Only time will tell in the spring.
Meanwhile I think Lavender2 has a good point, I think I'll put my June baring plants in a kiddie pool and try some day neutral in the gutters. It'll be fun to try both.