Happy Spring! Last spring and summer we put a lot of energy into our property, specifically outside. We have a small space for our vegetable garden so my husband helped me build a gutter garden for our strawberry plants. The strawberry plants were taking up a lot of room in our raised beds. So a strawberry gutter garden was the answer to make more space to grow more veggies and use the space more creatively. It was a quick weekend project that was finished in a few hours. And only cost about $50.
Making a Strawberry Gutter Garden
*We used it for strawberries, but lettuce and herbs would work well in the gutter garden too.
Here’s what you’ll need:
For 2 gutters:
- 4 Gutter End Caps per gutter (2 Right, 2 Left)
-
Traditional 4.5-in x 120-in White K Style Gutter
-
2-in x 4-in x 10-ft Stained #2 Pressure Treated Lumber
- 4 Brackets
- A Drill
- Screws
- A Level
- Hot Glue
-
Miracle-Gro 1.5-cu ft Organic Raised Bed Soil
- Strawberry seeds of plants
Before:
This is our space before we began. The strawberry plants don’t produce fruit all year but will live and produce for a few years. So we decided to transplant them. Moving them up on the fence to make room to grow more vegetables.
How to build your gutter garden:
Cut 2×4 to desired length. Using a level mark either side with pencil where you’ll add your brackets on either side of the fence. Use the fence posts if possible, your shelves will be much sturdier.
Screw in each bracket. Screw 2×4 to the brackets. Your shelf is ready for the gutter gardens.
Cut gutter to desired size.
Cap ends. Use hot glue to secure each end cap.
Place gutters in your desired spot on your new shelves. We staggered ours leaving shelf space for small pots to add variety.
Screw gutters into place by drilling through the gutter then screw it to the 2×4. *TIP – We screwed ours in, after having it for a year we realized we should have used bolts so we could remove the gutters to change the soil more easily. To bolt it to the shelf drill all the way through both layers.
Using a drill, drill holes for drainage all the way through the gutter and 2×4.
Fill with soil and plant your strawberries (or lettuce and herbs).
For convince add a soaker hose to your drip line. You can use a shut off switch on the line to turn the section of the soaker hose on and off during the rainy season.
After!
It was such a quick easy weekend project that gave us so much more space to grow fruits and vegetables in our little garden!
You might also like Raised Bed Gardening Tips. For more gardening tips check out my Pinterest board, How Does Your Garden Grow, I’ve been saving helpful hits on there. Pinterest is a great resource to save all your ideas in one organized place.
More home projects are coming to the blog soon! I’m working on getting our climbing wall DIY instructions up and our DIY paver patio playhouse area. Come back soon or subscribe to be notified when they are posted.
