posted 9 years ago
I'm intrigued.
I don't think I'd want something growing directly in the gutter, but what if you were to add what would amount to extra downspouts (two, three?) along the length of the gutter. Keep the original downspout clear so that water could flow down and away from the house, but add a few other downspouts along the length of the gutter.
But you wouldn't run these new downspouts to the ground --- just run them down a foot or so, and then cap them. Drill a couple of holes in the bottom on the cap so that they will still drain slowly when water fills them, then fill will potting soil and plant in these "dummy downspouts". I would make sure that the level of the dirt in the dummy downspouts is lower than the gutter, so water can still flow along the length of the gutter and overflow out to the real downspout.
So . . . when it rains, the water will flow down the roof into the gutter, and the first places the water will collect is the dummy downspouts, where your shade vines would be growing. Once these are filled, the water will continue to flow down the gutter and out the original downspout to the ground. Now you get the best of all worlds -- rainwater collection for your shade vines, and you are still moving the water away from the roof and house.
In dry times, you'd just spray some water up onto the roof and it would naturally flow to the low spots along the gutter -- the dummy downspouts where your vines are planted.
But the bigger the vine, the larger you would need those dummy downspout planters to be --- large vines are very thirsty. I would imagine that they could get quite heavy. I'd want to plant something annual, rather than a big vine like wisteria because eventually the roots of that vine would start to tear things up.
"The rule of no realm is mine. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, these are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything that passes through this night can still grow fairer or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I too am a steward. Did you not know?" Gandolf