Tried building a vertical garden with PVC pipes last weekend

I spent Saturday afternoon cutting and drilling 10 feet of 4-inch PVC pipe from Lowe's for a strawberry tower. The whole thing collapsed when I filled it with soil because I didn't brace it properly against the fence. Has anyone else had a DIY garden project fail in a spectacular way and what did you do differently the second time?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylor6681mo agoProlific Poster

The issue is you used schedule 40 PVC from the plumbing aisle instead of furniture grade PVC... that stuff is way too flexible for holding soil weight. You gotta brace it every 2 feet with steel conduit or build a wooden frame around the whole thing. I used zip ties to anchor mine to a cinder block wall and that worked way better than relying on the pipe itself for support. Also drilling smaller holes at an angle instead of straight through helped keep the strawberries from falling out.

terrybennett1mo ago

Funny, I went with schedule 40 on purpose actually (cheaper and easier to cut) and my strawberries are doing just fine with zero bracing after two seasons. The key is not overwatering the soil so it doesn't get heavy enough to bend the pipe.

sam171mo ago

Whoa, I feel your pain on that schedule 40 stuff! I made the same mistake my first go around and ended up with a sad, saggy mess. What finally saved me was using 1/2 inch rebar stakes driven into the ground every 18 inches along the length of the pipe, then zip tying the PVC right to them. It's cheap as hell and keeps everything rock solid even when the soil gets heavy after a good rain. Also, I switched to a really light potting mix with a ton of perlite in it, that made a huge difference in the weight. The angled holes tip is gold too, I wish I'd known that before half my berries ended up on the ground!