Spring has sprung and with that comes the early planting of fruits and vegetables. Enjoying the warmer weather and planning what to plant and when can be challenging. One thing that always comes to mind is growing healthy snacks for our kids to eat all season long.

Strawberry’s have been a part of our backyard garden since our oldest was a baby. We have a row of Strawberry’s in our flower beds along side our house. Growing in the ground can be challenging to avoid pests without using chemicals and over watering from the lawn sprinklers.

Over the weekend I installed a new rain gutter over my garage on the front of the house and had some extra parts. I had purchased 20 strawberry crowns earlier in the week and just didn’t know where to plant them. We will be moving sometime in the near future so I had an idea come together while weeding the front yard.

The Gutter Garden I built is a stand alone frame that holds three gutters about four feet long. I can put it  anywhere and take with us when we move. I built a simple shelf out of 2 inch by 3 inch  lumber 8 feet long with some 3 inch brass screws. I attached feet on the bottom of the shelf and braces so the wind would not blow it over. We get a lot  of wind in the spring time here in Central Washington. Next I cut the gutters to fit the shelves and screwed them down to the wood. I added small 1/8th inch drain holes to the bottom front of the gutters.

My 2 year old Alex helped fill the gutters with organic soil. We planted 12 of the crowns in the three gutters and watered them in. The drain holes in the top gutters help water the bottom ones when draining.

Happy Planting,

Dug