Vertical gardening

[happyflowerlady]

I think that vertical gardening is a great idea, because you can grow quite a bit of produce in just a small area.
With the bad economy, many people are realizing that they would like to grow at least a part of their food, but they do not have a lot of room to put in a full garden area, or maybe even live in an apartment. Urban gardening is really growing in popularity, and the idea of growing vertically is also growing along with it.
One easy way is to fill a pallet with dirt, plant it, and then stand it up along a deck or balcony.
Another way is to make a trellis along a deck or the side of the house, and grow your climbing plants like tomatoes and cucumbers along the trellis.
This is a picture from a few years back, with the tomatoes and cukes growing up the trellis I made, and the squash sprawling out underneath.

 

[Trellum]

Vertical gardening is awesome, I still need to get more info on it tho, but I will surely get my hands on that once I move. The bad economy isn't my reason to do it tho, I will do it mostly because I'm concerned about all those nasty fertilizers and pesticides used to grow our food. We are in big trouble without them already!

 

[firelily99]

Vertical gardening is not a new concept but it is something that anyone can do. As gardeners we generally think on the horizontal but a lot of space is available and aching to have flowers if only we would look upward!

 

[missRen]

Does vertical gardening affect the produce at all? I have seen vertical gardens and the plants looked deformed. I have always wondered if this affects the produce in taste or appearance. Do the roots grow up from the plant, or do the continue to grow down? I purchased some vertical gardening bags and just ended planting a container garden.

 

[happyflowerlady]

Does vertical gardening affect the produce at all? I have seen vertical gardens and the plants looked deformed. I have always wondered if this affects the produce in taste or appearance. Do the roots grow up from the plant, or do the continue to grow down? I purchased some vertical gardening bags and just ended planting a container garden.

I think you might be thinking of the growing bags where the plant grows upside down. I have tried growing one of those big bags with an upside down tomato in it, and i am not pleased with doing that at all. The tomato needed a lot of room to grow, so we had to hang the bag really high up to giv the tomato enough room. Then it was very hard for me to water the bag, since you have to put the water in the top of the bag. I guess it would be okay if the plant was smaller, so you could hang it lower down.
I also tried a strawberry bag, and didn't like that idea either. The roots on the strawberries were so short that I had to keep the bag really soaked to get the dirt wet enough to reach all the strawberry roots, and then it would turn into mud and drain out the strawberry holes.
The picture that I posted, is regular plants growing in the ground, but instead of having a large garden area, I made a trellis for the climbing plants to grow up instead of just sprawling all over on the ground like in a standard garden plot.

 

[claudine]

In my opinion vertical gardening is a wonderful idea. Vertical gardens look so unique and so pretty! I'm sure I'll have one when I move in to my own apartment. It will help me save a lot of space. I'd love to grow many climbing plants

 

[missRen]

I think you might be thinking of the growing bags where the plant grows upside down. I have tried growing one of those big bags with an upside down tomato in it, and i am not pleased with doing that at all. The tomato needed a lot of room to grow, so we had to hang the bag really high up to giv the tomato enough room. Then it was very hard for me to water the bag, since you have to put the water in the top of the bag. I guess it would be okay if the plant was smaller, so you could hang it lower down.
I also tried a strawberry bag, and didn't like that idea either. The roots on the strawberries were so short that I had to keep the bag really soaked to get the dirt wet enough to reach all the strawberry roots, and then it would turn into mud and drain out the strawberry holes.
The picture that I posted, is regular plants growing in the ground, but instead of having a large garden area, I made a trellis for the climbing plants to grow up instead of just sprawling all over on the ground like in a standard garden plot.

Oh I see! I am glad I am not the only one who doesn't like the bags. I like your vertical garden. It makes sense that you could grow the vine type plants up instead of having them grow all over the ground. I wonder if you could train watermelon or pumpkin to grow the vine vertical, and bring the fruit to the ground. I imagine it would look like a line of watermelons. You probably wouldn't be able to grow too many like that, but maybe more than you normally would in a smaller space. I will definitely look into making a vertical garden! I have some tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce started, but I am running out of room! Thanks for clarifying the difference for me!

 

[Shellyann36]

I love your trellis gardening! Your plants look so healthy and happy. We have so many wood pallets and I really want to try verticle gardening with these pallets. I am trying to get hubby on board with this. I am going to show hubby this picture of your verticle gardening. Perhaps he would be interested in planting something in the front yard.

So many ideas and so little time.

 

[Whitewolf2578]

I wish I would have done more research on Cucumbers before I planted them. I didn't know they were like ivy and will literally just grow everywhere, if I would have known about the fact you can grow them vertically it would have been better. Well you learn from your mistakes, there is always next year.