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Growing a Vertical garden is a wonderfully efficient way to garden! Giving you additional flexibility, by allowing you to free up your precious beds for extra crops and flowers. Read on to find out affordable and practical ways to grow vertically…

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A smart Move!

Whether you’re tight on space or not, vertical gardening is always a smart move! Make use of that vast space above your beds and double or triple your growing space with just a few little tweaks.

Did You Know There is a long History of Growing Vertically?

You could be following in some pretty ancient footsteps! Ancient civilisations, constructed vertical gardens that thrived for Centuries. One particular garden has been named one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. The incredible Hanging Gardens Of Babylon

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The first recorded instance of vertical gardening dates back a whopping 2500 years ago! It was the Assyrian culture who built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in ancient Mesopotamia and started a practice that would span milenia!

What the Assyrians Created was an astounding structural masterpiece with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of shrubs, trees and vines that were set upon vaulted terraces. The gardens had a sloping construct to emulate a sloping hillside and were veined with streams of water that poured from elevated sources, flowing through the tiers creating an environment of humidity that allowed the gardens to remain lush and green.

Vertical Garden Ideas

Vertical gardens nowadays are not as ambitious or nearly as majestic as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, but we have followed their lead, albeit to a much smaller scale. Here are some ways I grow vertically….

Shelving

You can knock up a bunch of shelves in no time using recyclable materials and a little imagination. Shelves are perfect for indoor gardening, greenhouse gardening and outdoors…especially handy for walled gardens or enclosed yards. In the past I have made use of old decking boards, slats from fence panels, bed slats, broken table tops…pretty much anything made of wood can be fashioned into a shelf or raised surface to display your plants..

DIY garden shelves — **Greenhouse** Pepper Shelves made from slats from an old fence panel

Greenhouse shelves — **Potting Shed** Jungle! Shelves made from Old decking boards

Garden shelves — Upcycled Old Shelf Unit in **The Greenhouse**

Garden Arches

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Garden Arches not only provide a structure for Vegetables and flowers to climb but also provide a ‘show’. They are wonderful for showcasing the fruits of your labour! You can construct your own free Garden arch..see my Garden Arch Made From Tree Branches or you can buy one cheaply enough online

Buy A Budget Friendly Garden Arch

Garden arch ideas — Runner Beans Growing On a Budget Friendly Garden Arch

**DIY Garden Arch Made from Tree Branches**

Fences, Uprights and Bamboo

Chained link fences, column type structures and Bamboo are particularly good for Supporting vegetables like Peas and Beans and flowers such as Climbing Roses and Sweetpeas

Growing peas on a Fence — **Pea** plant climbing a chain link fence

Pea supports — Early Onward Peas supported by Bamboo Canes

Growing Runner Beans — **Runner Beans** climbing the Potting Shed Roof Supports

Sweet pea bamboo — **SweetPeas** on Bamboo teepees

Bamboo Canes Tomatoes — Tomato Plants Supported By Bamboo Canes

DIY Garden Frames

As you can see below we built some simple frames from lengths of 2×1 wood and screwed them to the pallet collar beds, linking them to each other. A wonderfully frugal way to streamline my growing, providing a space saving structure for my Climbing Vegetables

Hanging Baskets and Wall baskets

Using hanging baskets or wall baskets are one of the easiest ways to garden vertically they take up Zero ground and you can grow flowers or even tumbling tomatoes and strawberries in them.

Buy Coir Hanging Baskets

Vertical gardening hanging baskets — **Coir Hanging Basket** planted with Winter Pansies

Walls

Plant perennial vines like self clinging English Ivy to grow up a garden wall (English Ivy can penetrate mortar, so bear that in mind before planting) I myself have Clematis Montana climbing up the walls of my house ( Clematis is not self clinging and will require a support of some kind.. trellis, wire etc) Clematis Montana will also not cause any issues regarding potential mortar damage.

Mayleen Clematis — Clematis Montana ‘Mayleen’

Other Ways To grow a Vertical Garden

Wall Pockets– Easily attached to a wall with Screws. Fill with flowers and shallow root vegetables

Guttering – Recycle half gutter pipes and plant them with Lettuce, Radish, Spinach…even Strawberries! Screw them to walls or tie them to a chain link fence for a vertical growing solution.

Pallets – Use free wooden pallets as a vertical planter..fill with soil and plant with flowers and vegetables.

Trellis – Attach to a wall or place into large containers and allow vines, flowers, and vegetables to climb them. This would be a a good solution for small yards or container gardens