Vertical vegetable garden- Grow More Veggies in Lesser space

Do you live in an urban area? Are you bound in an apartment with little space for gardening? You want to grow a vegetable garden but don’t think you have enough space. If so, we have some news. Even though living in a city with limited space can be frustrating for a gardener, it is not impossible to grow a vegetable garden. In fact, with a little planning and creativity, you can grow a vegetable garden anywhere, even if you don’t have much room. You can easily grow as many fresh vegetables as you want without too much space. It’s easy to make a vertical garden for growing vegetables. You can use shelves, hanging baskets, or trellises to make one. Read the whole blog to learn the tips for vertical vegetable garden.

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Steps For Preparing Vertical Vegetable Garden

(1) Selecting a Site

A south-facing wall will get the full heat of the summer sun for most of the day, which has both benefits and drawbacks. Walls that face southwest and west are also good places to grow Vertical vegetable garden.

(2)Materials for Vertical Vegetable Garden

• Before you start, ensure the wall is in good shape and debris-free. Measure the wall and choose mesh or trellis work that is strong enough to hold the number of containers and wet compost you want to use. Plants should also be able to climb or stick to it as they grow. You can use expanded metal with a galvanized finish to give it a modern look. 
• Put in 5 x 5cm (2 x 2 in) wood battens at regular intervals to keep the mesh in place. The battens keep the mesh away from the wall, which lets air flow and gives you room to tie in plants and hang containers. 
• Use staples every so often to attach the mesh to the wooden frame. This will make a large area of mesh that covers the wall. The setup is now ready to be filled with plants for the Vertical vegetable garden.

(3) Preparing Containers

• Almost everything can be used as a container. When the labels are taken off old tomatoes, oil, and olives tins, they can be used as pots. Containers need to have holes in the bottom for drainage, which is easy to do with a drill. 
• Many kinds of tin have seams from top to bottom. The best way to put these is against the mesh. Drill two holes on each side for the garden wire to hold the container up. Two more holes can be made at the bottom of the tin for extra security.
• These are helpful when pots are placed at the top of the wall, where they are more likely to catch the wind. If you add more holes, thread the wire that holds it together through them before you fill the pot with compost.

(4) Planting

• You should fill containers attached to the mesh with lightweight multi-purpose compost. At this point, you can also add a gel that keeps water in.
• Leave at least 5cm (2in) space between the top of the compost and the rim of a straight-sided pot. For a tapered pot, leave 7.5cm (3in) of space since compost is more likely to wash out of a pot with a slanted edge.
• Set the container where you want it, and then wire it to the mesh to make hooks that can hold the weight. Once you attach it, water  often, and You are ready to begin a Vertical vegetable garden.

Tips for Thriving Vertical Vegetable Garden

(1) Best Plants 

It is important to choose the right crops and cultivars. Unlike bush-type plants, vines, runners, and sprawlers are easy to train to grow up and away from the ground. Even though bush crops are smaller, they take up more horizontal ground space. If you grow a climbing variety, you can grow it on a trellis and use less space on the ground. 

Remember that most vegetables, no matter how they are grown, need 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight. In most climates, you’ll want to choose a surface facing midday or west to catch the afternoon sun. Any heat your plants take in during the day will be reflected onto them at night, speeding up their growth and making it easier to harvest. 

We like to grow pole beans, climbing peas, sweet potatoes, tomatoes that grow on vines, and types of zucchini, cucumber, melon, and squash that you can train up supports. Following are the common vegetables that do well in the Vertical vegetable garden.

•  Cherry tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Green beans
• Melons-Watermelon and muskmelon
• Peas
• Zucchini

(2) Support For Vertical vegetable garden

When choosing support for your vertically growing plants, think about how much sun and wind they will get, how big they will get, and how much care they will need. 

There are many different kinds of support to choose from. In addition to trellises, tripods, arches, and pergolas, there are also gazebos, wire cages, netting, bamboo poles, and more for support in a Vertical vegetable garden. Some gardeners have even devised clever ways to use 2-liter soda bottles, gutters, and PVC pipes.

Try to match the plant’s features with the structure. 

1. For example, plants with leaves and tendrils, like pole beans and sweet peas, do well-climbing trellises, which you can buy or make out of woody pruning. 
2. Grapevines and other large plants need stronger supports, like an arch or pergola, to grow well. Remember that a structure must be able to hold the weight of a fully grown plant and should be well-anchored, so it doesn’t fall over. 
3. You can train Apple, pear, and cherry trees to grow vertically, either against a wall or fence or along wire supports that stand alone. You can train these trees into single-stemmed cordons, fan shapes, parallel-branched espaliers, and many other fence-hugging shapes.
4. Use strong horizontal wires stretched between fence posts to give wall-trained fruit the support it needs.

Benefits of Vertical Vegetable Garden

Growing a garden on all three planes By using a fence, trellis, or some other structure, gardeners can get more growing space. Here are just a few reasons why vertical gardening is a good idea: 

1. First and most important: higher yields. You get a bigger harvest when you make the most of your space. Vertical planting is also easier to take care of and harvest because the plants grow higher, and you don’t have to bend over or kneel as much. 
2. Also, because the leaves and fruit are higher off the ground, they are less likely to get sick.
3. Upward growth improves airflow, so plants dry out faster after being watered. This makes it less likely that moisture-loving fungi like powdery mildew and rust will take hold.
4. Disease symptoms and signs of pests are easier to spot so that You can take them care of sooner rather than later. 
5. When plants don’t want to sprawl on the ground, more leaf surface is exposed to the sun, which can help them grow better. 

There are many good things about Vertical vegetable gardens, but you may need to water them more often. Because the wall blocks the rain, it’s especially important to have water planters attached to the wall. Microirrigation systems, also called drip irrigation, use water efficiently and can be paired with a timer to make the watering process more automatic.

(Also Read-How to Start a Balcony vegetable Garden)

Conclusion

 Vertical gardening is all about growing upwards rather than outwards. It leads to fewer plant problems and is also easier on your back! With this Vertical Gardening Guide, you can discover the benefits of vertical gardening, which plants are most suited for it, and how to get started, whether you have a backyard or a patio. Start your Vertical vegetable garden now.