Space is at a premium for most gardeners, whether they have a large plot or just a tiny patch. How can you get more plants in your garden without creating a jungle? Grow up. By that we mean that you can raise your crops to grow vertically rather than spreading out on the ground. Vertical gardening not only adds extra growing room, but the plants are also easier to maintain, stay healthier, and can be used as a design feature. Here’s how to get started.

Vertical Growing Advantages

Vertical gardens are plants that have been trained upward with the help of mounted, hanging, or freestanding supports.

• Maximizes space: Making use of surfaces like walls, fences, or stair or balcony railings leaves the ground and floor area open for other plants or different uses. With a vertical garden, you grow more in much less space than with traditional in-ground gardening.
• Provides privacy and functional design: On a space without walls, tall free-standing structures can multitask as privacy screens. A bare wall or fence can become an ornamental and even edible, living painting, either as a focal point or to cover up an unsightly view.
• Easier to cultivate and maintain: Growing at eye level means no bending over, which is great for gardeners with physical limitations. You can sit or stand to plant, maintain, and harvest your garden. Also, because outdoor vertical gardens are off the ground, they get more airflow, better drainage, and are less prone to soil-borne diseases, fungi, pests, and rot than horizontal gardens.

Different Types of Vertical Gardens

You can try vertical growing in the ground or go with mounted, suspended, or freestanding structures, using commercially available kits or try DIY solutions.

Pocket Planters

You can hang up breathable fabrics with pockets in which you grow small, shallow-rooted plants. You can buy these designed for gardening or, if you prefer the DIY approach, look for a canvas hanging shoe organizer and poke small holes in the pockets for drainage.

Trellises and Free-Standing Gardens

Freestanding supports, such as cages, arbors, and trellises, may be both functional and decorative. Trellises support vining plants and crawlers vertically along their surface. To add more surface space, position a fan trellis with the largest point at the top and place another upside down next to it.

For an easy project with kids, build a trellis from bamboo stakes tied together at the top with twine. Grow leafy vines up the trellis, and you’ve got a living fort. An A-frame raises squash, peas, cucumbers, or climbing ornamental vines off the ground and leaves you room inside to harvest the crop.

Pallet Gardens

Turn slatted wood pallets into vertical gardens by attaching them to a wall or leaning them against one. Plants grow through the openings and gradually fill out to cover most of the pallet. To keep the soil inside, staple landscaping fabric to the back, bottom, and sides of each slat. Fill them with potting mix and make sure to tuck the plants’ root balls securely in place between slats. Avoid pallets made with pressure-treated wood or those marked "MB" (methyl bromide) as they could leach toxins onto your plants or even you.

Hanging Gardens

Use S-hooks to hang pots on a wire grid attached to a wall. If you only have a balcony or patio, set up an accordion-style laundry drying rack and hang containers from it. Upside-down planters and hanging baskets are also perfect for determinate bush-type tomatoes like the modest-sized ‘Sweetheart of the Patio’ hybrid, which trails down from the side of the pot. If you like the aesthetic of repurposed found objects, drill drainage holes into used rain gutters and attach them to a wall in a pattern or hang them vertically in rows connected with a chain or rope.

Ladder or Stacked Gardens

Place pots on the steps of a wooden ladder, then lean the ladder against a flat surface. For a stacked garden, pile wooden crates, rectangular planters, or cinder blocks in a grid or pattern. Mix a variety of plants in separate boxes, placing sun-loving plants on top levels to protect shade-loving plants below.

Tower Gardens

You can really max out the productivity of your space with The Garden Tower 2. Towers gardens like this hold 50 plants, such as salad greens and herbs, in a space that’s 2 feet wide and about 4 feet tall. It can yield a whole garden’s worth of food on a patio and even has an integrated composting system to nourish the plants.

Best Plants for Vertical Gardens

Many popular garden plants, such as cucumbers, peas, and morning glory, are naturally vining, so all you do is direct the plants onto the support, and they grow up on their own.

Plants with long, flexible stems, such as tomatoes, peppers, and nasturtiums, can be trained onto supports with plant clips that you can reuse from season to season. An arbor draped with grape vines is an attractive addition to any space and puts bunches of sweet fruit right where you can reach it.

For pocket, pallet, and tower gardens, go with shallow-rooted options like blueberries, kale, strawberries, and radishes. Flowers such as pansies, alyssum, and impatiens work well in pockets and pallets, too.

How to Grow a Vertical Garden

Watering

Plants in containers and vines with no leaf cover at their base tend to dry out faster than plants in the ground. Check the soil with your finger about two knuckles deep to see if the ground is dry below the surface. Water deeply and then wait for it to dry out again. Always check seed packets for more specific watering guidelines.

Soil

When growing in a vertical garden in containers, use a high-quality planting medium like Burpee’s Premium Organic Mix, which allows roots to spread out into a stable foundation and manages moisture, so plants have just the right amount.

Light

As your vertical garden grows higher, it will create shade on the ground below it. As you place your plants, be mindful of where the shade will fall, so you don’t deprive other plants of the light they need.

Burpee has the supplies you need for vertical growing here.