How to Create a Vertical Vegetable Garden
A vertical garden is an inventive way to make more of your growing space while also reducing disease and insect problems. Growing plants vertically adds beauty to your decks or patio. When you grow vegetables vertically, supportive structures like trellises, stakes, and obelisks become part of the decor while still being functional.
Creating a vertical vegetable garden require creativity and a bit of ingenuity. You also need to plan and think carefully about the plants you want to grow and the amount of sunlight that each plant will receive in the place you dedicated for them.
Build a Vertical Vegetable Garden
Any vegetable that can be grown in a garden works well for a container garden. You can find many different sized containers that can be used to grow vegetable plants, and sometimes that means getting creative. Old wash tubs, wooden crates, old wheelbarrows without wheels, five-gallon buckets, and more are all possible containers for growing veggies.
Shelves
One of the first things you might consider using are shelves. Shelves have several benefits for growing different vegetables. You can pick which shelf the vegetable is set on by how much sunlight they need. The best type of shelves for vegetable gardening is the kind with slats because it allows air to circulate and some sunlight to make it down to the other plants.
Hanging Garden
If you don’t have much ground space, a hanging basket requires no space, but you’ll end up with a bountiful harvest. Strawberries and tomatoes grow well in hanging baskets.
Trellises
A classic choice for a vertical garden is a trellis. You can secure them anywhere, whether its against a garden box or a patio. Trellis are a great support system for any trailing or vining crop, such as beans, peas, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and more. A stepladder can be a makeshift trellis to support crops as well.
Arches
Arches are an eye-catching choice for a vertical vegetable garden. You can easily add arches to your existing garden beds for more growing capacity. Arches can be placed near entrances to your backyard. There is something so enchanting about walking under an archway full of life and growing plants. It’s breathtaking.
Fences
Any fence that you have in place can be used for a vertical garden. That means around your patio, your deck, or lining your property. Don’t waste that fence! Make it useful for growing vegetables. You can dig a garden bed along the property fence and use that space to grow food for your family.
Pallet Gardens
Pallet gardens are a new thing, and they have become quite a garden trend in the last few years. A pallet garden is a simple and effective way to grow compact vegetables. Herbs grow well in pallet gardens as well. Salad greens, baby kale, dwarf pea plants, bush beans, and numerous herbs do well with pallet gardening. Make sure that you use heat treated pallets rather than chemical treated.
Window Box Wall
Window Boxes are a great choice because you probably already have a few under your windows. If you don’t, they’re easy to get and install. You can plant compact herbs, trailing vegetables, and strawberries. Paint the containers and window boxes to make them stand out.
The Best Vegetables to Grow Vertically
Peas
Peas are so delicious fresh off the vine, so sweet and delicious. You can grow garden peas and sugar snap peas. Peas produce a harvest for the entire growing season, but they’re a spring crop. You’ll want to plant them two weeks before the final frost, and they do well in the fall.
Pole Beans
Pole beans are basically green beans that grow vertically rather than in a bush. Instead of producing their harvest at one time, like bush beans, pole beans continue to make a harvest throughout the entire growing season. They’re quite prolific.
Runner Beans
Runner beans are another cousin to pole beans, but they also produce gorgeous flowers, so they are an ornamental plant as well as a veggie.
Cucumbers
Cucumbers need a good support system, such as a trellis, to climb up. You can pick between pickling and slicing cucumbers. They also have cucumbers in different colors and size, and some are the size of quarters at most.
Zucchini
Everyone loves zucchini in the summertime, but they love to grow all over the place. It makes it hard to grow in a small space. If you decide to grow zucchini vertically, you will need a strong support system and to create slings for the zucchini because they’re so heavy.
Squash
Squash are just like zucchini, but it can include things such as butternut squash and acorn squash. You’ll have to do the same thing with zucchini by providing support.
Melon
You can grow fruit vertically as well! Watermelon is a bit harder to grow vertically because of the size unless you pick miniature versions. However, you can find small melons that grow up trellises and cantaloupe.
While these 7 plants grow vertically on their own, don’t discount other compact plants that grow well vertically in containers. Lettuce, carrots, peppers, radishes, spinach, and eggplants grow well in containers, so they can be put in pallet gardens, windowboxes, and more. There are few vegetables that won’t do well in a vertical garden, so that makes it easier to plan.
Final Tips for Creating your own Vertical Garden
Pick the Right Location
All vegetable gardens need the right location with plenty of sunlight. So, pick your location wisely. That’s something you can’t change once you have it started! Remember most plants need at least six hours of sunlight each day, and the best location is south-facing if possible. Try to stay away from trees and shrubs that might cast too much shade. Trees are also a competition for water.
Make Sure They Have Water
You need to make sure the garden has access to a source of water. Can your hose easily reach? Make sure you have a way to water it because you need to water often. Who wants that task to be a major hassle?
