How to Build a Vertical Vegetable Garden

I have numerous years of experience growing several crops in vertical gardens, and I love sharing my expertise and enthusiasm with others.

Vertical gardening enables you to grow a large array of plants in little spaces while still taking pleasure in strong yields and numerous tasty fruits.

If you don’t have a great deal of space for a veggie garden, vertical gardening might be the ideal option for you. You might not recognize it, however you can grow and gather terrific crops of veggies in 3 to 5-gallon containers. You can even grow excellent little herb gardens inside in little containers on window sills. Pole cucumbers and beans are ideal plants for vertical gardening. Roma, plum, and cherry tomatoes can be grown in hanging baskets. I have actually also grown pumpkins, yardlong beans, potatoes, yellow crookneck squash, and zucchini in my vertical gardens.

In this guide, I’ll reveal you how to create some vertical gardens of your own and share some pointers for how finest to keep them.

Here’s a simple detailed guide to help you establish your first vertical garden. I tried this out myself and it worked wonderfully.

Supplies and Directions for Building a Do It Yourself Vertical Garden

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to develop a vertical garden (as pictured above)

What You’ll Need

Wood pallet.
Sandpaper.
Staple weapon and staples.
Hammer and nails.
Landscaping paper.
Planting soil.
1/4-thick medium-density fibreboard (MDF).
Plants.

Guidelines

Sand down any rough spots– together with all the corners– on the pallet.
If the pallet has no backing, nail the MDF to the back using about 12 nails. (This is to prevent the soil from spilling out of the back.).
Double up your landscaping paper and staple it along the sides, bottom, and back of the pallet.
Lay your pallet down flat and fill it with potting soil. Press the soil down strongly, however leave enough room for planting.
Begin planting, beginning with the bottom of the pallet. As you work your method up, ensure each of the plants are crammed in tight prior to carrying on to the next layer.
As soon as all the plants are protected, water them thoroughly.
Leave your pallet horizontal for 2 weeks to permit the plants to take root.
Stand the pallet upright and take pleasure in!

How to Assistance Your Vertical Garden.

For one, there requires to be plenty of support for the weight of the plants you’re growing. The much better assistance you can have for your vegetables being grown vertically, the better off you will be.

Some individuals stick their assistances in the soil, however I highly suggest attaching your assistances to the containers by screws or nails. That way, you will not have to stress over your vegetables falling down or getting blown over by strong winds or thunderstorms.

You also need to set up the bed for your plants and put the growing supports in location prior to you ever plant your veggies in the beds.

Build a Basic Frame.

You can just build a strong frame like in the photo below (or simply a standard cube-like structure) if you need a concept for a place to start. If you construct it in a 12′ x 12′ square, you’ll be able to grow all the cucumbers you– and numerous families– will be able to use. As soon as you have the frame developed, be sure to develop a door and cover the sides and top with hog wire.

Make sure that you utilize treated lumber for your grow frames and for your containers. I put my growing containers around the bottom of the frames, and I put thick black plastic down in the floor of the enclosure to shut out grass and weeds. I often set an outdoor chair inside the enclosure and just head out there and sit for a while in the nights. When the enclosure gets covered with cucumbers, it appears like a cucumber house.

Keep in mindIf you’re using treated wood boxes for your containers, they should be set on 4 x 4 lumbers, or perhaps on railroad ties, so that they will be up off the ground.

How to Motivate Vertical Growth.

In many cases, you can simply plant something as you generally would and after that move the vines to encourage them to grow up and over your vertical supports. I frequently utilize cotton gardening twine to connect fully grown plants to their supports, encouraging them to grow vertically.

Hog Wire Works Great for Added Assistance.

You can also utilize what is known as hog wire to construct terrific assistance walls to grow cucumbers on. If you grow your cucumbers in this manner, you’ll have the ability to walk along the wall of hog wire that they’re growing on and choose off the fruits.

To do this, you can set up 4 x 4 wood posts about 2 feet in the ground with 6 feet holding up above the ground and attach hog wire across the poles like a fence. Then plant your cucumber plants along the bottom, about a foot apart. As the cucumber plants grow, train them up onto the hog wire. You can weave the growing plants into the hog wire. The cucumber plants will keep growing, and you’ll be rewarded in time with lots of scrumptious cucumbers along your vertical wall.

You can grow terrific squash up on an A-frame assistance like in this image. Be sure to construct a secure, heavy-duty frame for squash plants.

Prepare Your Containers and Soil for Vertical Gardening.

It’s crucial that the containers be prepared correctly with correct drainage and an excellent mixture of topsoil and fertilizer if you’re doing your vegetable gardening in containers.

Make Certain Your Containers Drain Well.

It’s a good idea to bore lots of drainage holes into your containers and line the bottoms with screen wire (to keep those holes open). I likewise typically put 4– 6 inches of crushed gravel and small stones in the bottoms of my containers– about 1 inch for each 5 inches of soil. I generally acquire the bigger crushed gravel, because it enables more drain and I like to pack my gravel in.

When you’ve loaded the gravel in, you can fill the containers to the leading with good-quality topsoil and a compost/manure mixture as described listed below.

Usage Just Well-Rotted Manure or Garden Compost.

Make certain that any manure or garden compost that you utilize is effectively decayed, or you’ll burn your vegetable plants up. Mix 80 percent topsoil and 20 percent well-rotted manure or well-rotted compost for finest outcomes. When I’m filling up brand-new containers, I like to mix my soil in a wheelbarrow.

How to Prepare Your Soil.

Prior to I plant my vegetables, I include a pound of 5-10-5 fertilizer to the soil every 20 feet along the row of plants. This remains in addition to the 20 percent of well-rotted manure or garden compost.

You’ll discover that your plants will start off very strong and grow up and over the vertical supports rapidly if you do it this method. When my plants first start to grow veggies, I side-dress them with another pound of 5-10-5 fertilizer for each 20 feet of plants.

Keep in mind, About every 3 years, I take all the soil out of my containers (down to the gravel) and blend it with more well-rotted manure or well-rotted compost. By doing the soil over, as I call it, I keep my veggies growing well. This process is greatly aided by my compost bin, which I extremely suggest creating in your house if you don’t already have one.

You can install an area of fence like this photo and plant your cucumbers along it. They will grow up the fence and be simple to choose.

When Should You Water Your Plants?

When the sun is not shining on them, be sure to water your vegetables just. You actually need to water prior to sunrise or after sunset. I have my sprinklers on timers. They begin at about 10 pm and go off at 10:30 pm. I try to ensure that any soil where I have veggies planted gets at least one inch of water a week. I do not have to water if it rains this much.

Tips on Growing Various Fruits and Veggies.

There are a lot of various, fantastic foods that you can grow in your vertical garden. Here are simply a few that I’ve had some success with

Cucumbers.

Cucumber vines maturing in the air on strong assistances will produce big quantities of delicious fruits. You’ll be rewarded with a bounty of cucumbers to produce delicious pickles with if you select them off with regularity. I like to pick them when they are a bit larger than a male’s thumb and make scrumptious dill pickles with them.

Potatoes.

In the early spring or late fall, before it’s time to plant other veggies, you can plant various varieties of potatoes in your containers and grow bumper crops. They will grow extremely quickly in the ready loose soil.

Tomatoes.

All types of tomatoes are terrific for vertical gardening. In the last couple of years, I’ve begun to grow mainly heirloom tomatoes, consisting of numerous ranges of cherry and pear tomatoes. While there are lots of tasty modern-day tomatoes, absolutely nothing beats the flavor of treasures. I like to look for seed companies and purchase their catalogs in the spring. Absolutely nothing, and I indicate nothing, beats the taste of heirloom tomatoes that you grow yourself.

Keep in mind, When I grow my tomatoes, I likewise plant marigolds in hanging baskets overhead in my growing enclosures, due to the fact that tomato worms can not stand marigolds. The mere presence of marigolds ought to be enough to keep tomato worms, and various other garden pests, far away from your precious fruits.

Pumpkins.

I have actually even had success vertically growing big pumpkins. I did, nevertheless, need to use 2 x 4 s to support them. When they get growing to supply them with additional assistance, I’ll likewise frequently add mesh internet under the bigger pumpkins. I’ve grown some by doing this that have actually weighed over 100 pounds hanging 8– 10 feet in the air. I assure you it’s quite a sight to see.

Pole Beans.

In the video below, you’ll see how to grow pole beans on a teepee constructed out of bamboo poles. This is an excellent method to grow pole beans, especially if you keep in mind to anchor your teepees well with camping tent stakes and rope so that they will not blow over in a strong wind or thunderstorm.

Make certain to leave enough room to walk in under your teepee and pick pole beans from the inside (along with from the outdoors). And do not forget to do your own research study and discover numerous varieties to grow, such as yardlong or purple pole beans. Kids especially like to see the yardlong pole beans growing, and the beans are so extremely tasty.

Article source: http://crazyhorsesghost.hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Build-A-Vertical-Vegetable-Garden

WE SPEND MANY HOURS A DAY FINDING THE BEST RESOURCES TO HELP YOU IN YOUR GARDENING PROJECTS. IF YOU FIND THIS ARTICLE HELPFUL, PLEASE
SHARE IT SO OTHERS CAN FIND THE BEST GARDENING INFO

Big Gardening

Big Gardening Ideas & DIY Guides

Gardening Article Categories

How to Build a Vertical Vegetable Garden

Gardening Article Categories

Related Posts