Vertical Gardening, An Incredible Method of Maximizing Your Garden Space
Vertical gardening is a unique and practical method of maximizing all of your garden space. When plants such as tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and melons are left to sprawl on the ground; they will take up to 10 times as much space as growing them vertically. With the exception of tomatoes and pole beans, too few gardeners take advantage of this gardening technique.
In addition to saving space, there are a number of advantages to growing vegetables off the ground.
* They are cleaner and more resistant to disease.
* Plants will not be subjected to soil rot which results from the fruit lying on the ground.
* Many crawling and soil borne insects and pests will not bother them.
* Plants receive good air circulation.
* Vertical gardening can provide privacy and screen off unsightly views.
* Gardener’s who find regular gardening physically challenging will enjoy vertical gardening because it eliminates a lot of bending over.
Examples of plants that can be grown vertically:
* Tomatoes
* Acorn squash
* Butternut squash
* Peppers
* Cucumbers
* Sweet and snap peas
* Pole beans and lima beans
* Smaller melons
* Gourds
Considerations
* Plants require watering more often, so mulch accordingly.
* How high will the plants be at maturitye Keep in mind that you will need to reach them easily, so do not build the support trellis too tall.
* Plan so that the vertical structures are on the north side of the plant beds so as to not shade the plants growing on the ground.
* Hanging baskets can be used with success. If the structure that they hang from is too high, rig up a pulley system to raise and lower the plants making access and watering easier.
The first rule in creating your trellis structure is to make it very strong and solid. It must be able to support the weight of ripe vegetables and also be able to withstand winds of up to 30 miles an hour when the structure is covered in vegetables.
Bamboo and heavy cord for lashing are a good solution. Other materials are pressure treated 2 by 2 lumber or 1
