Running out of space for vegies? Try gutter garden

[GrannieAnnie]

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/gardening/gutter-garden-growing-your-food-in-a-small-spacejuneau-empire-083350

The comments following the picture were interesting including watering suggestions.
Has anyone tried this sort of gardening?

[GrannieAnnie]

[ceres]

One of my plot neighbours has lengths of guttering screwed to the back wall of his shed and uses them for bringing seedlings on.

[Digeroo]

I think is it brilliant.  Also could be good for people who find the earth rather a long way down. 

Obviously salad crops, but would like to know what else doing well.  Rather restricted root length.  Do you think there is enough depth for beetroot.  Presume you could also grow dwarf beans, they could flop over the side instead of drooping on the soil.

I know someone who has a nice wall one side of a patio garden, would be perfect.

[grannyjanny]

I also think it's a brilliant idea & to make it deeper you could use the square guttering instead.

[manicscousers]

we had strawberries in a wooden trough, just a bit smaller than a gutter, watering was the problem..year after, we did thymes, that was better  :)

[Sholls]

I also think it's a brilliant idea & to make it deeper you could use the square guttering instead.

I've used the square guttering (approx 7-8cm deep) in the past; alpine strawberries, basil, thyme, mint, radishes and salad leaves were all perfectly happy.

Watering wasn't much of a problem because the 'planters' were on a balcony about a metre from a tap, but if I was to resurrect my set-up I'd probably add some water retaining gel.

[vjm63]

We have got a version of this. We replaced a leylandii hedge with a fence and managed to get over 7 metres of veg bed out of it - my primary veg bed in the garden. Then we painted the fence white, and attached 7metres of guttering near the top. The guttering slightly slopes to the left, and has drainage holes at the lower end only. Then we filled the guttering with hanging basket compost which had water retaining gel in it, and planted. 
I put wild strawberries, nasturtiums, and various bee-attracting wild flowers in there rather randomly and it has worked. It breaks up the fence view well (until the veg grow to that height in many cases!) and has attracted pollinators.

Worked this year - let's see what happens next...