She Literally Eats Out of Her Gutters…

…rain gutters, of course! Suzanne Forsling has become somewhat of a celebrity for her ingenuity. Her resourcefulness finds a practical application for re-purposing rain gutters. Have a read:

I am from Iowa, so I have an inherent need to grow vegetables. Each winter, I dream up ways of trying to garden in Juneau’s environment which, so far, has really frustrated me.

Nothing I tried works very well. Like many homes in the Juneau area, our yard has its problems. We live near the glacier, so the soil is cold and has very little organic matter, there are lots of big trees shading it, and we have all the slugs and root maggots anyone could want, with porcupines, cats, bears and ravens meandering to boot.

There is only one side of our house that gets much sunshine, and, of course, that side of the house has the smallest yard. It is really just an alleyway between ours and the neighbors. I might eventually put in some cold frames, but can’t really afford that this year with all the extra money going to the high energy and food prices.

So my brain has kept working the issue, even while I was asleep. One morning in late May, I woke up with an idea that seems to be a real solution for our situation, and I thought it might help others as well. I had heard about people using rain gutters around deck railing at a master gardener class that I took this past spring from the Cooperative Extension Service.