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Posted: May/20/2008 10:32 AM PST
Greets, all. My house has a big, beautiful front porch with a fantastic view. Naturally, it's the favorite hangout spot all summer long -- so, to make it even nicer, I like to grow climbing flowers and train them onto the porch railings and pillars -- morning glories and moonflowers, and this year I'd like to add scarlet runner beans, maybe hyacinth beans. It's really nice...when it works. Here's the problem: I really really don't like container gardening. I want to get 'em started and put 'em in the ground. The problem with this is that the porch roof drains onto the area in front of the porch, where I would normally be planting these. I can kind of cheat 'em toward the building a few inches, but they still have a tough time of it. And, of course, because it's always getting pounded by water, the soil quality isn't great either. Any suggestions for how I can give my climbers a more friendly environment, given those constraints? I've got a bodacious crop seed-started, I'd hate to see them get beat up! |
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Posted: May/20/2008 5:58 PM PST
That's a tough one, -bat, and I deal with the same thing. I want gutters so I don't have to worry about that, but our roof is complicated, so I don't think we can do it ourselves, and we can't afford to have someone do it just yet, so I suffer the rainfall under the eaves. You could perhaps plant into containers with simple straight bamboo for supports until the plants are tall enough, then move them to the ground under the porch when the are stronger. The straight bamboo should be easy to pull out, or if you have plantings to hide the containers you wouldn't even need to. I love containers, so I'd just put them along the railing, myself... 
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Posted: May/21/2008 11:55 AM PST
I work for a sheet metal shop and we do lots of gutters and downspouts. The cheapest fix (now this involves labor) is to dig a hole (mark where your water comes down) the size of a bucket, put the bucket in the hole(remove bottom of the bucket) and fill that bucket with gravel to create what is called a "french drain". The water won't splash so much, and will still filter down into the ground, benefiting the plants. Hope this works for you. Or you can get Large PVC pipe from a plumbing supply, which really works better. You will need to go about 1 1/2 to 2 feet deep. Of course, I am assuming this is not the length of a porch, just a valley? 
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Posted: May/22/2008 7:23 AM PST
Quote: Originally posted by carolyncat353 I work for a sheet metal shop and we do lots of gutters and downspouts. The cheapest fix (now this involves labor) is to dig a hole (mark where your water comes down) the size of a bucket, put the bucket in the hole(remove bottom of the bucket) and fill that bucket with gravel to create what is called a "french drain". The water won't splash so much, and will still filter down into the ground, benefiting the plants. Hope this works for you. Or you can get Large PVC pipe from a plumbing supply, which really works better. You will need to go about 1 1/2 to 2 feet deep. Of course, I am assuming this is not the length of a porch, just a valley? Unfortunately it is the length of the porch -- think like a hip roof, it runs off on the front edge and along both sides. So, to do the french drain approach, I suppose I'd have to dig a whole trench all around the porch. Oh well...thanks. |
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Posted: May/22/2008 7:38 AM PST
And unfortunately, the drip line is the perfect spot for putting your plants! |
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Posted: May/22/2008 11:28 AM PST
Maybe you could try putting rain diverters on the edge of the roof, with gaps in them where there won't be plants. They are really easy to do with metal flashing. |
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Posted: May/23/2008 7:45 PM PST
Aw, shucks! Thought I had something for you! |
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