Moving A Gutter Garden

Our gutter garden was the 1st one Jeff built and the more he learned about them the more he wanted to change ours. A couple of weeks ago he built one for his sister...the same size as ours but in a straight line instead of 2 parallel lines. This week we got the 2x4's and gutter parts and Jeff put them together...twicking the design a little. It sat there...empty...along side the old ones in use. Then yesterday was moving day! Jeff transferred all the pails to the new empty gutter... being careful to get the netty cup in the gutter and not crush them. That wasn't so difficult with the 5 gal pails but when it came time to move Potato Tub #1 it was another story. There has to be 100 lbs of soil in that tub and it took both of us to move it. Good thing the tubs are suppose to be laundry baskets and have sturdy rope handles on them. I had to grab my handle with both hands and...holding on tight coz Jeff moved faster than I did...hobble to the new gutter. After Jeff got the old one placed in the new formation and the water system hooked up again he moved all the pails and it was time to move Tub #1 again. This was a longer distance but we made it and all the pails were in their new position. Then it was time for the weekwacker to get closer to the gutters than I had gotten with the lawnmower. Disturbed a lot of mosquitoes in the process, too. The frame for the garden net has to be altered but that's just re-positioning joints and using different lengths of pvc pipe.

Everything is growing well in the buckets as you can see in this photo (r). The light green leaves in the black pail is celery and the tall green leaves in the blue pail is romaine. Jeff's planning on 2 more gutters... parallel to these 2 but with enough room between them to use the lawnmower. We'll stay with one reservoir and just add another 2-way faucet. Gutter gardens are a little more work at first but they're self-watering..just keep the reservoir full...and easier to weed. We've got to improve on the potato tubs but that will be for next year.

We didn't sit outside for long last night...the firewood was too damp...and besides I had bought a wireless mouse and keyboard yesterday (part of my 'mad money' from the sale of camp...no one believes I should spend it all on yarn except me!!) and Jeff wanted to get them working. That task included a midnight run to Walmart to get chips, cereal and AAA batteries to insure the mouse would keep running! The most unusual part of the installation was when Jeff asked for the folder with all the passwords, etc for the router I knew exactly where it was. A real FIRST for me!