Sunday 20 May 2012

Great minds think alike.. Repurposing Rain Gutters as Veggie Beds

This will be a quick one, as I am inspired by a discussion with some friends on successful veggie planting in a recycled rain gutter.

When we installed a perspex awning over our front porch, we had to have a portion of our rain gutter removed. I had the half-baked idea then of digging a hole to bury the spout for water drainage, filling the space with soil and planting veggies in it. Except I never got around to doing it.

So a few weeks ago I hit upon the idea of sticking the gutter into existing rain drains that run around the house (all kitchen/bathroom waste water goes straight into the septic tank, so our rain drains that run around the perimeter of the house are fairly clean and unclogged because only rain water runs through them).

As fate would have it, just as I hauled a heavy sack of soil out of my car, the sky darkened and drops of moisture pattered the ground. I knew I had to work fast. I dragged the rain gutter in to the drain, stuffed the spout with some rags and propped up the other end with an unused pot so excess water could drain out the spout via gravity.

The pics explain it so much better than I can:

The rain gutter nestled in the drain by a patch of daikon radish, sayur putih (Chinese lettuce methinks?) and sayur raja (I have no idea what this is called in English)

This end is propped up with a pot with rocky clumps of soil. I prolly need to use something else in the future should I want to use the pot.
Spout/hole at the other end stuffed with rags.
After this, the next step is to add soil, compost etc. and leave to mature for a few days before transplanting. It seems that the simple drainage system is working.

I should really start sowing seeds but I've been so busy lately with a cat illness. My poor Yoruichi...



6 comments:

mat jon said...

yeah great mind think alike..tak terpikir pu boleh buat macam tu.. yoruichi...i heard it somewhere.. bleach kan..;)

Mama Pongkey said...

Geram bila tengok dalam internet, tanaman dalam gutter ni pun menjadi rupanya.
Ya betul, dari Bleach. Ni mesti peminat jugak ni. Tapi saya dah lama tak tengok/baca. Kucing saya, Yoruichi Shihouin (kaler putih tompok orange and black) ada 2 ekor abang, Toshirou Hitsugaya (warna putih) dan Ichigo Kurosaki (kaler orenlah). Pening kepala vet kitorang.

TukangKebun said...

Looking forward on how this projek goes. Hope your yoruichi feels better now. Tak boleh layan bleach lagi even I am a big fan of manga and anime. Gintama pun I curi-curi baca tau. I requested my brother to bring his gintama collection last time, but mama said no. Nanti your sister tak study ;P.

Mama Pongkey said...

Gin Tama.. I just googled it and it does sound interesting :-) I don't really read manga, I just watch the anime. Currently watching One Piece in marathon blocks, but now we are waiting for the episodes to pile up so we can have another marathon someday. Alaaa boleh je nak baca manga masa tengah take a break from the writing kan? Stress reliever gitu.

Yoruichi is getting better, thank you very much :-) She is quarantined away from the other cats so I can monitor her better. Seems to be eating a lot and is in good spirits. I hope she can get well soon enough so she can be with the other cats.

mat jon said...

aiks..citer pasal manga/anime pulak ni..my top 5 manga list one piece comes 1st, fairy tail 2nd, bleach 3rd, naruto 4th and last but not least The Breaker which is mangaka.

Mama Pongkey said...

Hehe more anime/manga for me to explore :-) Fairy Tail sounds interesting too. Used to watch Naruto too.. I must've missed so many episodes now. I stopped watching during the many filler episodes before Shippuden. Same with Bleach, those fillers really killed me softly.