Vertical Gardening Space Saving Tips
April 12th, 2010
When I visited Epcot Center last month, I took a tour of the vertical gardening area and I was very surprised. They are now experimenting with tons of plants that can be grown vertical, saving space and water, so more plants can be grown in the same amount of space.
Vertical Gardening is not really a new concept. The first time I saw a vertical gardening plant was in tomatoes gardening. This was actually upside down vertical gardening, but it solves the problem of having to use a bunch of wire to hold the tomato plants up. The tomatoes gardening vertical concept has now been redesigned into a Revolutionary Planter for Tomatoes and has been improved upon to include a self watering system!
Most vertical gardens don’t grow upside down though. You can grow plants vertically on garden arbors, fences, a trellis, or other structures that make the plant grow upright instead of flowing over the ground.
Many times vertical gardening is used for vines. When growing vines this way, be sure to keep about four inches of mulch at the base of the plant to make sure the soil will retain water in the summer. Vertically-growing plants tend to dry out more quickly than ground flowing plants, so make sure to check them often for watering needs.
At first, you may have to train your plants to grow where you want them to (waterproof twine is good for this), and it may take a few years to get a nice vertical garden growing.
But as you know, you need to be patient when growing vertical gardens, or any other garden. In a few years, or months depending on the plant, you will be an expert in vertical gardening and can start creating shapes and forms that make your garden just that much more interesting.
Entry Filed under: Container Gardening,Vertical Gardening
1 Comment Add your own
1. Tom Edwards | April 12th, 2010 at 10:59 am
There was an interesting article in a local peridical, “Grow” appearing on Friday’s in the Denver Post (daily newspaper). The article described a technique for growing potatoes in a small area. It doesn’t totally fit the “Square Foot” gardening theme, but I believe that it would be close enough to be able to “force” it into that mold.
The technique was to start in an approximate 2′ x 2′ box with moveable sides. You start by removing all sides except the bottom 4 sides. Plant the potatoe eyes in this area. As the potatoe vines grow, put some dirt over the vines covering about 1/3 of the vine height. Let the vines continue to grow, each time it outgrows the box, add soil and another layer of sides until the box has grown to 2′ or so.
The developer of this technique said that one of his understudies grew over 100 #’s of potatoes in his 2′ x 2′ box.
A co-worker from Viet Nam said that the farmers there used a similar technique with sweet potatoes.
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