I notice I have some very nice compost-like stuff in my gutters because I didn't clean them before the first rain of the season. I just need to get things into a self-sustaining cycle which moves slowly enough that the downspouts eventually emit raw compost ready to be spread on my garden.

How do I do that? Do I need to get some worms up there or something?
-- b153b, Dec 17 2023

Compost Removal Method Gutterpult
Someone will have to figure out how to aim this thing [swimswim, Dec 20 2023]

You're going to need a bigger gutter.
-- Voice, Dec 17 2023


Have you ever wondered how the Hanging Gardens of Babylon got started?
-- pertinax, Dec 17 2023


If you ignore your gutters for long enough they compost naturally.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 17 2023


Bigger, wider gutters. Roof-edge gardens of herbs and wheat grass. Self-sustaining Vegan subdivisions of 3-bdrm split-levels. Grazing milk goats on the roof. It’s a My Pony kind of life. Sweet.
-- minoradjustments, Dec 17 2023


This makes almost too much sense.
-- 21 Quest, Dec 17 2023


I found a worm in the gutter of my lean-to roof earlier in the year, and I didn't put it there. (Just cleared it again today, as it happens.) Worms can actually climb quite well, so maybe you don't need to worry too much about seeding them up there.

To actually clear stuff from the gutters, I guess what you need is either a scraper or a steeper slope. With the latter, stuff would come down with rain regardless of whether it was soil-ready.
But the real issue would be separating it out at the bottom.
-- Loris, Dec 17 2023


Deep gutters, a relatively fine soil screen just above the bottom, and some way to produce enough wash in one operation to shift the soil along after it comes through the screen.
-- MechE, Dec 20 2023


A very slow turning augur in the gutter and another in the downspout might work to both churn and move the product along.
-- swimswim, Dec 20 2023


//A very slow turning augur in the gutter and another in the downspout might work to both churn and move the product along.//

I like the idea of an archimedes screw in the gutter. You could maybe power it with a turbine in the down-spout.
Although, clogging may be an issue. Perhaps the screw could drive compost only as far as a (usually blocked) settling column. then when you wanted compost, you'd open a hatch at the bottom and be rewarded with the rapid delivery of the full column's worth of foetid anoxic gutter sludge. Dispensed all in one go, initially with some pressure to clear the initial clog, then petering out as it becomes more of a stagnant liquid.
-- Loris, Dec 20 2023



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