Vertical Gardening
Get your garden growing with the latest vertical gardening techniques! Learn how to create an efficient and space-saving vertical garden, so that your plants and vegetables can thrive. We cover how to grow vegetables vertically and how to set up a trellis for fruit and vine produce. Follow us for more great content and watch our video to start growing your own vertical garden today!
This week, Amy discusses the ins and outs of vertical gardening. Why it is important and how to go about setting up your own vertical garden.
Transcript of Vertical Gardening at the bottom of the page.
Audio Version of Vertical Gardening can be found at Farm Life and Freedom Podcast
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Transcript – Season 1 Episode 5
Vertical Gardening
[00:00:00] Welcome back to farm life and freedom podcast. I’m your host, Amy Bell.
[00:00:26] Well guys, last time we spoke, I talked about companion planting and, It was kind of a long-winded when there’s a lot to companion planting. So it was kind of a long-winded podcast. Plus I threw in some parenting stuff at the end that just felt like it needed to go. But this time I told you last time that I would be speaking about vertical gardening.
[00:00:49] And so that’s where we’re at today. We’re going to be talking a little bit about vertical gardening and it’ll actually be a little bit short. It’s not going to be a real long-winded one. There’s a few main points I’d like to hit with you. And talk about some options. Why you would want to do vertical gardening, how it’ll help you.
[00:01:09] And, some different ideas for it. As always you can get the show notes at farmlifeandfreedom.com on the tab that says show notes. Also, you’ll be able to go to, , to Oaks farm talk.com. We’ve got several different options there under the gardening section for vertical gardening and that kind of thing. So you can check those out.
[00:01:34] But I wanted to speak specifically today about the vertical gardening, this time of year here at two Oaks farmstead, probably just like the rest of you guys. It’s just crazy busy. We’re in the height of planting season, trying to get everything in before storms come through and that kind of thing. And I also, at the same time, we’ve got other parts of our farm that need tending. For instance, I mentioned before we slaughtered a couple of cows and we had hanging in our cooler. And right now I, as of a few days ago, I started doing the butchering and processing.
[00:02:15] It’s going to take me a little while because I have to fit it into my schedule, along with the other things that have to be done. So right now, things are just kind of a little bit crazy as they always are this time of year. Probably the same for a lot of you. Homesteaders gardeners farmers. This is just one of those really busy seasons, but I wanted to talk to you about vertical gardening, because there are so many options out there. There are so many different things that you can do.
[00:02:43] Especially right at your planting time. And the reason I say that is because when you plant some things, you want to plant them where they can be trellised now, you can always add trellising in or staking. After the fact in some areas you can’t always do that. Some plants don’t like it when you mess with their root systems. So you, after they’re already growing. So if with those particular plants, you would want to make sure that your trellising is already in place instead of just jamming a.
[00:03:17] Bamboo stake right down beside it, but I wanted to talk about a few options now for one, let’s talk about why you would want to do vertical gardening. Now of course, vertical gardening refers to planting something and letting it grow up instead of out. Okay. It’s just, that’s the basic idea of it. And in some cases you can plant something and let it go down instead of out.
[00:03:42] But one of the main things is space. If you have a limited area where you can grow, then it makes a lot more sense to plant a seed or a seedling in one spot and then let it grow up and then allow other things to grow around it on the ground. It’s companions, check out that, podcast from last time. And you’ll hear a little bit more about that a lot more really, but one of the things.
[00:04:10] Other than just space is airflow. One of the reasons that I believe vertical gardening does so well for so many gardeners is because it allows for good airflow. That’s really important because for instance, when it rains or when you water. The leaves get wet which is totally natural, but if they don’t have enough air flow, then they have a harder time drying out.
[00:04:36] And when they have a harder time drying out, there is always the, the potential for disease. At mildew and in that kind of thing. So having good air flow around your plants is always a really good thing to try and strive for. Another thing is damaged you. If you’re vertical gardening, then you don’t have a lot of stuff on the ground.
[00:05:00] Vines that that are allowed to just hang out on the ground. At least around my place. I don’t know about you guys, but at least around my place, they’re going to get stepped on or something’s going to fall on or whatever. I’ve got a farm full of boys and dogs and all of that. And I’m telling you, , if it’s on the ground, it’s going to get stepped on smashed, maybe .
[00:05:24] Run over. And there’s always that option. So if we are. I’m in the habit of growing upward, then those vines aren’t going to be laying on the ground to get stepped on. So there’s that also the option, , for being able to more readily. Attack pests okay. Now.. I like to say that. I am half man.
[00:05:52] I’m not a tranny or anything like that, but I would say I’m half man. I do a lot of man things and boy things, icky things just because of who I am and what I do. However, even with all of that. I really hate grabbing hold of bugs. At least certain kinds of bugs. Now, if it’s a spotter, I’m out, I’ll burn it down. But.
[00:06:20] Regular like. Grasshoppers and oh, the dreaded squash bugs and all that. I hate grabbing them. However. It’s necessary. And if you are doing vertical gardening, It allows for a better opportunity to see where the pests are and reach in and grab them now a little tip, if you will put duct tape. Sticky sat out around your fingers. You can reach up and touch them and grab them that way. Instead of grabbing hold of their nasty little bodies.
[00:06:57] But that’s just a side tip. Okay. But that is actually a really good point though. If you are growing vines, let’s talk about cucumbers. If you’re growing cucumbers, you are going to have the potential for cucumber beetles and , squash bugs and that kind of thing. It is so much easier to see them find them.
[00:07:18] If you are growing up on a trellis. And, you know, there’s air flow in between there. You know, you can see the leaves are not all gathered up on the ground. You don’t have to pick anything up to look. You can just kind of, you know, look around and find those little suckers and then get them off of there.
[00:07:37] Sometimes even a good waterhose spray will do some of them. But that’s beside the point. Okay. So those are some good reasons why to do vertical gardening. Okay. So now let’s talk a little bit about some of the different kinds of plants that are good for trellising and the kinds of trellises that you would want to use for different reasons, for different kinds of plants. Now some of the main things that people think of when they think about vertical growing
[00:08:09] is peas and beans. They are natural climbers. And that’s something that will very easily, very readily go up a, a very lightweight trellis. It doesn’t have to be anything terribly strong. To hold a peas and beans. I have my black eye peas in with my cucumber. So they’re growing on a hard structure because the cucumbers needs something that’s heavier.
[00:08:37] But with your pole beans. , you can, you can grow pole beans up corn stalks so as in the three sisters garden, But. I light weight um, trellis. You know, just any sort of netting, that kind of thing will work for something that’s lightweight like that. Like peas and beans. However, some of the other things that are more common.
[00:09:03] In the garden that sometimes people don’t think about, would be stuff like cucumbers because they do, especially if you’re growing quite a few, they do get heavy. , they have blooms all over them and if there’s, , air flow , and a room around them, those the bees will get in there and really just go to town on all those blossoms. That’ll be all over them.
[00:09:26] And you could end up with lots and lots of cucumbers. I believe you get a whole lot more production with, especially with cucumbers. If you are growing on a trellis. Now. Structures as far as heavy vegetables and fruit that needed to be trellis. The kind of structures that you need for those are based on the size of the fruit or vegetable that you’re growing.
[00:09:55] Melons. Cantaloupes. The smaller watermelons. I personally wouldn’t try the trellis, the. Giant wins, but I know that you can add cucumbers. Certainly. Loofa I grow loofa out there on a, , Big trellis, but you can grow those on a fence. It’s something that a lot of people do just throw them out
[00:10:16] at the bottom of a fence and just let them go to town all summer long. But some of the things that you want to consider when you’re choosing a type of trellis system for your plants are the strength. How heavy your plant is and it’s fruit. Versus the kind of structure that it is, you know?
[00:10:39] You can get those. Really lightweight kind of cheap. Garden arbors or, you know, archways, they’re really pretty. You can decorate your garden with them, but you’re not going to want to grow anything terribly heavy on them because they could really bring them down. I’ve seen it happen though. You get something growing that’s fairly heavy.
[00:10:59] And especially if you have a. Uh, heavy rain also, or a big wind come through. You can really demolish them. But like, for instance, I’m going to give you a good, for instance, last year I grew my cucumbers. On kind of a makeshift cucumber tunnel. It was a temporary structure. Just meant to go that one year.
[00:11:20] And what I did was I used an hog panels, the 16 foot long, four foot wide. Hog panels. And I put the short ends down in, Two different beds that were side by side. And we, put them, I’m just making them bend over and go up over the top, like a tunnel. And we put three of them in a row. And that’s how we created our cucumber tunnel. Last year. It worked fantastically. I mean, I had so many cucumbers. I’ve still got.
[00:11:50] Pickles in here, left from, from all the cucumbers that we had last year. But this year I wanted to go even bigger. And more permanent. So we just got through building. Two really big cucumber tunnels. And if you, um, I’m going to try, we’ll see how technically adept I am. I’m so not, but if I can figure it out, I’m going to try and put it.
[00:12:18] Pictures of my new cucumber tunnels in. This video. If I can figure that out. If not. Then you can go to Twooaksfarmtalk.com because I will have that post up very shortly. And it gives the details on it, plus, , lots of pictures. So we’ll have that up there. , but with the cucumber tunnels that I built this year, it is a hard structure
[00:12:46] base. It’s attached to the wooden raised beds. That we built. And then we built basically trusses. From the ground all the way around. And with a kind of a Gable pitch roof, and we’ve used roll fencing all the way around it. That’s what my cucumbers will grow over. That’s what they’ll attach themselves to.
[00:13:08] And I’ll still be able to kind of reach through and grab the cucumbers off of there for harvesting purposes. But that is a really good structure. It as heavy and strong as it is, it can hold things that are a lot bigger, even. , melons. And what have you. But it just really depends on kind of where you’re growing things, what you’re growing and
[00:13:33] what you need, if you are growing cucumbers, And you plant them close together. Like I do. As they grow up, their leaves are going to create shade in the heat of the day on the east side. Of the beds. Uh, the cucumber tunnel, if you do it that way. And you want to keep that in mind because that could potentially be a big help for you because whatever is on the east side of it is going to get some shade during the heat of the day.
[00:14:05] So that would be a great place to plant lettuce, which really doesn’t need that high heat in the heat of the day. So something to keep in mind there, because when you’re planning these structures, don’t just plan for the item that you know, you’re going to grow on it. Plan for whatever’s going to go around it.
[00:14:24] Because that is actually one of the best benefits of growing vertically is all the space that you’ve got left over. Down around them at the bottom. You want to use that as, as best you can. Some of the other things, winter squashes, their vines, , we’re talking about butternut squash. We’re talking about spaghetti squash.
[00:14:45] And then of course, melons. Uh, cantaloupes and the smaller watermelons, in my opinion, those kinds of things can absolutely , be trained up over a trellis over an arch, anything like that. And it’s a good way to go. You do on a lot of those. Not all of them, but a lot of them, you, you’ve got to kind of, , attach them.
[00:15:09] Loosely be careful. Don’t make your strings like you’re using a string or something like that. Don’t make it terribly taught because you will cut off the, , the vine. It will end up cutting off the vine or breaking it. But you can attach them in, keep them in place. I’ve grown on a teepee before just to make shift bamboo stick and TP to grow various things up. And if I’ve put.
[00:15:37] pie pumpkin’s on them . You have to kind of be careful. , tying them on, but once you do, it’ll kind of point them in the right direction and they’ll just keep going wherever you’re, training them to go.
[00:15:49] And that works really well. Honestly, I love doing it. I think it’s so pretty. You can I always throw morning glories in with a lot of my trellises because it’s well, it’s pretty. It has all the blooms on it and it makes it a nice, pretty arch. My Arbor that I have over my gate, into my garden.
[00:16:10] That I always plant, pie pumpkin’s on. And those big leaves of the pie pumpkins plant. Tend to get shade on the east side. And I take advantage of that. My chamomile grows really well with my cucumbers. And I think that that nice shade that happens in the hot afternoon sun. Really helps quite a bit as well.
[00:16:34] Okay. A few others. , okay. Here’s one to think about. Zucchini. A lot of people just do, like what I’ve done for years. It just plant a zucchini plant and let it grow. It tends to sprawl. It’s not that that’s a big deal. But those squash bugs that the dreaded squash bug that everyone gets there they’re everywhere.
[00:16:59] And if they, if you don’t get ’em, let me know where you’re at. I might look at some land there. But I’ve not found a good way organically to actually get rid of those sucker. So you just kind of have to work on,
[00:17:14] Hindering them, I would say. And one of the ways to hinder them would be to not cover the ground. They tend to get up in that ground. And they had from you, they have lots of little babies and they get all of your plants. And then before you know, it, your plant is just a goner but if you stake off your zucchini plant right beside where you plant it.
[00:17:36] And as it grows, tie up that mainstem all the way up and prune off those lower leaves, especially you can absolutely trellis your zucchini plant and plant them closer together that way, because they’re not so big and sprawled out. And then, have. Better area to control the pest. And then of course,
[00:17:59] Lots of great zucchini. To grab a hold of and it’s really easy that way. And that’s what we’ve got ours. We’ve got ours and just bamboo staked in each plant. So that’s one of those. I’m going to mention one other on the types of plants versus the types of trellises. And that is tomatoes. And I tend to go on and on about this. I grow lots of tomatoes. I love them. I don’t eat a raw tomato. I know it’s weird, but I really love tomatoes because I make so many things from them. So I want to grow lots and lots.
[00:18:36] I tend to plant my tomatoes very close together about a foot apart. And I prune heavily. And I grow them straight up with a vertical gardening technique. I do not ever, ever use tomato cages because I believe that they encourage not pruning. It’s hard to get in there even, and prune your tomato plants. If they’re wrapped up in a cage.
[00:19:02] So I never ever used those, but I’m going to tell you what my favorite method is for trellising, my tomatoes. And you can, even, if you would like to see it or see the videos of it. You can go to Twooaksfarmtalk.com and go to the gardening section. I have to go back a little bit because it’s been a little bit since I posted that, but it’s fantastic information. You should absolutely check it out.
[00:19:24] But what you do is on the way, the method that I lied, I have a, if I have a stake at one end and a step like a. T post or something stake at the other end. I’ll have a couple of more supports in between, depending on the length of the row. And then I’ll take. It’s called tomato twine and I’ll put a link.
[00:19:46] on Two Oaks Farm Talk in the post there. , Uh, linked to what. I specifically used because it works so well. It’s cheap, really inexpensive, and it works really well. But I’ll tie a string off to the first post and then I just go around them. I weave in and out. Of the tomato plants. And then when I get down to the other end, I turn around and come back and weave opposite. So when you pull that tight it sandwiches that plant and holds it straight.
[00:20:15] Well, then every few inches you just, as it’s growing, you just add another string and go do the same thing. Zigzag down there, zigzag back. And it really does hold it straight up as it’s growing. It just continues to do so. And it gives you the opportunity to get in there very easily and trim off.
[00:20:35] All of the unwanted leaves, push out more, , energy from the plant into the actual production of tomatoes. And it, allows for more airflow. It keeps, you know, Keeps back, the potential for disease. It. Doesn’t hide the hornworm, the tomato horn worm so easily. So is there’s great reasons for doing it. And trellising is what makes that possible.
[00:21:03] That’s probably one of my very favorite. Plants to trellis because it works so well in offering extra production potential. Okay. So just real quick, another little thing on the, on the actual trellises themselves. There are so many different options out there. You, I mean, From garden fencing to.
[00:21:28] Old roll fencing that you’ve pulled up from an animal pen or whatever. , most homesteads or gardens or farmers that most of them have a bunch of that laying around somewhere. So use what you’ve got. I’m a huge proponent of using what you’ve got. But go out there and see, see what you have. You have roll fencing. Do you have some hog panels that aren’t currently in use? Here’s an idea ladders. Every time I met a yard sale, if I’d got those old wooden letters, I grab them up just because I really liked them. I use some decorating and.
[00:22:03] I’m about to put some up in my, in one of my gardens to put some more of my pie pumpkins on. , it’s pretty it’s looks really cool. Now you do have to stake them off. At least in my area, I’ve got to stake them off or attach them. To a structure in some way, because of the winds and, and all that. Plus the weight of the pumpkin’s. If there’s a lot of ’em that are growing on, it could tip them over. And then of course you’ve got disaster.
[00:22:29] But, Thinking about things like that, thinking about what you might have that you might be able to use pallets are sometimes really usable and situations like this, but thinking about what you might have out there. To stand up. You know, lean over whatever. And in grow your plants vertically.
[00:22:52] In order to save yourself some space and increase your production. I encourage you guys. I would love to see some of your ideas, some of the things that you’ve done before with vertical gardening, I love getting new ideas for things like this and send me some ideas and I may give them a go out in my place. I love trying out new things. And also we may feature them on two Oaks farm talk.com.
[00:23:17] And that’s actually a good place that you can go and put them if you would like to get on our social media. We’re on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and farm life and freedom. Is where you’ll find us on all of those and. Post a picture tag us, do whatever. Let us know. I’d love to see them. I’d love to see your ideas. And then maybe, yeah, like I said, maybe we’ll be able to, feature them on one of our next upcoming posts on two Oaks farm talk.com.
[00:23:45] You guys have a fantastic week. Get out there, get your hands dirty. Get your garden planted and send us some pictures.
