I’ve been looking forward to sharing this project with you guys ever since I bought the supplies for it. Using sections of aluminium gutters is the coolest idea idea for a garden ever. It’s such a convenient setup because there’s no need for tons of pots or ledges to set planters on. One caveat – these don’t have built-in drainage, so you’ve got to be careful not to overwater. So far, I’m having good luck with them as indoor planters.
Supplies
1 long aluminium gutter piece
a pair of heavy duty tin snips
one left and one right endcap per gutter piece
2-3 mounting clips per gutter for attaching the gutter to the wall
(if desired) paint & painting supplies
pebbles
potting soil
your choice of seeds & plants
Directions
Visit your hardware store’s gutter section. Most big box home improvement stores have a section of the store dedicated to gutter parts and accessories. I bought one 10 ft. long gutter and asked a sales associate how to cut it into smaller pieces. The really kind man introduced me to heavy duty tin snips, used to cut gutters. Since I was buying a single gutter piece, he cut it into one 4 ft. & two 3 ft. pieces for me. (Thanks, Home Depot guy!)
With three total gutter sections, I needed to buy three left-side endcaps, three right-side endcaps, and nine mounting clips for mounting my gardens and containing their soil.
When I got home, I painted all of my endcaps and gutter pieces gold to add some color to my bathroom, where I decided to mount them. Plus, I’d originally wanted to use copper gutters for this project, but holy crap! Copper gutters are way more expensive than a can of paint. Note: if you plan to grow edible plants in your gutter gardens, don’t get paint on the inside or mounting clips. Paint is toxic.
Once my couple layers of paint dried, my husband mounted them for me into the studs of my bathroom wall. He made sure to use the studs because soil and plants can be heavy.
He didn’t actually enjoy mounting these at all. ;)
The rest of this project is just using the gutters as planters. I put a thin layer of pea rock along the bottom of the gutters to start. Follow that with your desired soil, plants, and/or seeds. Check out my finished garden today!
When I was buying plants for my gutter gardens, I also picked up this cute (and supposedly lucky) money tree. Check it out!
What I did for my gutter planters was trace the end of the gutter on a piece of wood and cut it out with a jug saw. Then I placed the wood just inside the edge of the gutter and used several small screws to hold it in place. Works fine, used scrap wood, and it was free.
Wow! I love this! That breeze you feel is me running to the hardware store to buy some gutters!
Thanks!