Last post I spoke about my gutter berries in the greenhouse. This is what they are.
Hanging planters made out of gutters filled with strawberries.
As shown in the picture, I have vertical supports down the center of my greenhouse every 6 feet. I decided the space between them would be perfect for some gutter planters that would hang from the horizontal bar designed for hanging baskets.
The way I attached each of the gutters to each other can be done differently. This is the way I did it with what I had on hand and the way I wanted the planters to look.
I bought six 5 1/2 foot long gutters with ends attached. I drilled three holes evenly spaced in the bottom of each gutter large enough for chain to fit through. In between those holes, I drilled smaller holes for additional drainage. From the bar in the greenhouse I placed three S hooks that can hold some weight because three gutters filled with dirt is pretty heavy. Sometimes I doubled up on the S hooks to give it a bit more strength.
I then attached a chain to the S hook and fed that through a washer, then the gutter, then another washer. I placed a metal bar (I actually used some straightened landscaping pins) about 4-6 inches long through the chain links both above the washer inside the gutter and below the washer under the gutter to hold the gutter in position on the chain. The weight of the gutter with the dirt will hold these in place. I repeated the same process with two more gutters about 12-16 inches below the first.
Since there was no horizontal support to keep the gutters from tipping back and forth, I had to come up with a little supporting bracket. I took more of those straightened pins and bent them to fit sitting on top of the gutter. I placed them through the chain link on top of the gutter and hanging over the edges. I hot glued them in place at the chain and on both sides of the gutter to hold them in place. After a while the glue didn’t hold on the chain so I zip tied it. Again, there are other ways to do this, but this is what I had on hand so I made it work.
I repeated this process on every intersection of chain and gutter and then let the glue dry. I filled the gutters with potting soil, added some Espoma Plant Tone for some good nutrients and planted the strawberries. I planted them about 4-6 inches apart, a bit closer than I would out in the yard, but I wanted a lot of strawberries and I could always thin later if need be.
This completed one set of three gutters in one section of the greenhouse.
I then repeated the whole process and made another set of three gutters.
These strawberry gutter planters are awesome. Like I said, there are ways to do this so they look more clean if you are going to hang them in your yard where they get seen. Mine are in the greenhouse and no one sees them but me so these are perfect.
These planters are easy enough to water with a hose and an extendable wand, however, I did hook up drips to the gutters. I ran a 5/8″ tubing up one of the support posts and then tied in 1/4 inch drip tubing with emitters every 6 inches running across the top of each row of gutters. I turn those on when I water the other plants in the greenhouse and then turn everything off when I leave. They can easily be hooked up to a timer if desired.
I had strawberries ripening late into Fall. This will be the first Spring with them. We’ll see how early those berries arrive. I’ll keep you posted so check back.