While publicly accessible vegetable gardens on suburban berms may not get the tick of approval by the Auckland Council, I’ve tackled it another way. I have created a vertical garden that belongs on my boundary fence.
Lightweight and low maintenance, our vertical veggie garden proudly holds 33 seedlings. In this instance we’ve created a garden made of guttering as it was easy to assemble and fits nicely in to the ergonomics of my fence – a classic picket.
Facing out onto the street it says “I’m loved and cared for by this property but you can pick me” — well that is the plan anyway. With Spring underway and the days beginning to heat up, I hope our seedlings will be ripe for the picking in just a matter of weeks.
The beauty of using guttering we figured, was that it could hold minimal soil yet successfully grow a range of common-garden seedlings that are shallow rooting.
For other fences, a wooden vertical pallet garden could work just as well. It may be heavier however, but otherwise cheap to convert into a vertical garden.
Inspired by other regions who are implementing edible gardens successfully on suburban streets, we are a ‘lone wolf’ household it seems in our neck of the woods. Hopefully it will catch on.
What have we planted?
Ideally, I wanted to plant a big enough variety that someone could pick a salad for dinner. Was that too optimistic? Time will tell! That would be my dream anyway as I walked around the block to unwind after a busy day anyway.
The selection of seedlings included the overflow of our backyard garden: mustard lettuce, butter crunch lettuce, spinach, kale, bok choy, oregano, parsley, lemon verbena, mint, coriander. I’m sure there will be a refreshed assortment of plantings in another 8-10 weeks or so as these grow and hopefully are harvested by passers-by.
What did we use to make our vertical vegetable garden?
- lengths of guttering, cut with a hacksaw into three 1.5m lengths
- 3 x pairs of guttering Left and Right ‘ends’
- gutter glue
- 2 pieces of rough-sawn timber planks
- white paint
- screws
Assembly was pretty simple.
Firstly the wood was measured to fit nicely against the fence, primed and painted to help protect it against the elements. We wanted the end struts to wedge into the nook of the picket fence gaps, to help keep it sturdy and to make it a natural extension of the fence. This dictated the length of the guttering – a perfect fit at 1.5 metre lengths.
We drilled drainage holes every 10cm apart in the guttering so each ‘row’ could drain and water the row beneath.
Gutter ends were screwed onto the wooden planks, guttering was then glued in place. Simple. An extra screw was needed in the middle of each length to help support it from sagging under the weight of soil.
Well, that was a fun Sunday!
Have you tried your hand at public planting an edible garden on your street? I’d love to hear from you.
May 10, 2016
Hi Julie! Do you have more recent pictures? I’m curious about how your veggies are growing.
May 11, 2016
Hi Miguel, good timing! I have learned much since my rebellious roadside/fenceline planting! The guttering garden works a treat however as it’s a shallow garden I learned to be realistic as to the root systems of each plant and being able to replenish nutrients and constant watering over the heat of summer. Sadly I went on holiday for a week and EVERYTHING had bolted by the time I returned. I hung up my gardening fork for a month to bypass the heat (while I concentrated on my own backyard garden) and chipped away at replenishing nutrients to start afresh. I have the garden currently planted in edible flowers and fancy lettuces spaced generously in rows. I’ll post a pic soon!