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JONATHON ENGELS

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5 DESIGNS FOR GROWING FOOD Facebook

VERTICALLY
FEBRUARY 3, 2017 BY JONATHON ENGELS & FILED UNDER GENERAL
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Like edible lawnscapes and sustainability, due largely to permaculture and its reimagining of
urban lots as productive spaces, vertical gardening has become a popular part of producing General (846)
ones own food. It doesnt take much in the way of Google searches to nd a whole host of
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Be it in simple container gardens on the patio or sprawling beds surrounding the backyard,
utilizing vertical space allows us to multiply the amount of food that we can cultivate. In the
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following few paragraphs, Id like to revisit some of the common notions of what a vertical
garden means, as well as hopefully spotlight some of the methodologies that are sometimes Twitter
being overlooked. YouTube

THE NEO-CLASSIC SERIES OF SMALL CONTAINERS Google+

 The Green Wall - Educational Vertical Garden Bottle System Project Instagram

RSS

Video: The Green Wall Educational Vertical Garden Bottle System Project

Whether its from upcycled two-liter pop bottles or pallets that have been modied with
landscaping cloth, building a network of small containers to climb up a wall or fence,
sometimes dangle from roofs, is usually the rst option presented for vertical gardening. This
can work really well for salad greens, small annual plants, and herbs. At their best, they can be
very awe-inspiring, with foliage spilling out all over the place, and in really conned spaces,
they enable a person to produce much more than could be done with just pot plants that only
utilize the oor space.

On a larger scale, however, container gardens are a much more labor-intensive way to grow
stuff. The soil dries out more readily. Natural processes or reproductions of them (with deep
mulching and in-situ composting) dont work in these instances, equating to having to
periodically replace the soil and keep on top of garden maintenance, like watering. In short,
container vertical gardens only really makes sense for gardeners with extremely conned
spaces, where their daily attention is concentrated to a tiny space.
THE TECHNO-LOVERS HYDROPONIC TUBE SYSTEM

DIY Hydroponic Garden Tower - The ULTIMATE hydroponic system gr...

Video: DIY Hydroponic Garden Tower

Aquaponics and hydroponics have become equally as talked about as vertical gardening, and
it seems with any new (often novice) project the topic of hydroponics comes up. The most
readily produced and simple installation Ive seen of this is via PVC tubing. The system has
pipes slanting down the wall to gravity feed water/nutrient solution all the way down to a
pump that pushes it back up to the top. This can be done with aquaponics (using sh) as well,
with the water being fertilized by the sh, the sh producing a second source of food from the
arrangement.

Undoubtedly, like the container system, this vertical system produces much more food per
horizontal square foot than traditional gardenersuntil recentlyimagined. But, much the
same, the system also requires a lot of attention and maintenance. Fish have to be fed daily,
pumps have to be frequently checked, and water levels regulated. Mostly, though, it really
takes the integral soil and plant combination away, which likely leads to less nutritious, less
avorful produce, not to mention that PVC pipes are not safe to grow food in. In the right
situation, a somewhat dire one, this seems a justiable choice (there are safe pipes available),
but if another option exists, something more in-tune with natural systems

THE SPACE-SAVING, TRICKLE-DOWN VERTICAL TOWER

Vertical Gardening Build a Grow Tower Barrel + Worm Tube

Video: How to Build a Grow Tower Barrel + Worm Tube

Garden towers are a third space-saving option to consider, and while they are container
gardens, we can work these systems a little bit differently. With towers, we are creating one
large container that reaches skyward, rather than stringing together several, such as with pop
bottles, to ll the space. Whats more is that each tower holds several plants, perhaps dozens,
that are all watered from the same spot, which requires less energy from us. Beyond that, it
would be possible to use compost teas and composting worms to maintain life in the soil.
However, like hydroponics, towers are often (though they dont have to be) built using plastics
like PVC pipe or 5-gallon buckets. If this is whats going to happen, be sure to locate used,
food-grade plastics to do it. Food-grade ve-gallon buckets can often be found, and often for
free or cheap, at restaurants. Once the container is found, holes are cut into the sides, and it is
lined with something like burlap or landscaping cloth. Then, its lled with rich soil, with
seedlings planted in the holes. The best versions include a perforated internal tube that
stretches from top to bottom and can help with watering and feeding composting worms.

THE ORIGINAL VINE ON A TRELLIS GOES URBAN

Climbing Plants on Balconies, Patios and Decks Screening and Gree...

Video: Climbing Plants on Balconies, Patios, and Decks

In situations where square footage is larger and things like lettuce and herbs are part of a
grander garden system, we shouldnt lose focus on the fact that those patio posts or empty
walls still represent production space that we should be using. However, since we have the
means to produce our kitchen veggies elsewhere, we can use those spots like trellises,
growing vines up them: grapes, kiwi, passion fruit, scarlet runner beans, chayote, and lots of
other fruit and veg will happily scale posts to the rafters or cover a pagoda or create a green
wall to provide a little summer shade.

This vertical idea is simple and much less work to create: These plants are climbers by trade,
and they arent usually particular about what is there to be climbed. Planted side by side, they
can cover a fence, or theyll follow the lead of strings tied between two posts. They work well
in the ground, but most of them do ne in containers if necessary. By and large, these
perennial options are much less of a maintenance concern than hungry annuals. Once
established, even in containers, they require only annual pruning and occasional soil
amending.

THE FOOD FOREST AS A VERTICALLY LAYERED SYSTEM

Backyard Food Forest Layers / End of Summer Progress Report (Year ...

Video: Backyard Food Forest Layers

Food forests are the ultimate way of gardening vertically, as they are self-sustaining bio-diverse
systems that, if we want them to provide larger harvests, only require a bit of pruning and the
occasional tweak to invigorate or modify the eco-system to be more favorable for us. Many
people feel they dont have the space for a food forest, but even a quarter-acre of suburban
lawn is plenty of space to t in a multi-storied, highly productive food forest.

It starts beneath the ground with root vegetables, moving up onto the surface with edible
groundcovers. Then, the stakes raise a little with an herbaceous layer of plants, perhaps pest-
deterring or owering for benecial insects, that ll in between larger woody shrubs, perhaps
nitrogen-xing so that they can keep the soil fertile. The woody shrubs are compliments to an
understory of productive trees, which in small spaces might equate to dwarf or semi-dwarf
varieties. Then, even in a normal suburban lawn, there might be room for one or two over-
story trees to ll in yet another layer of production. There might be vines crawling up the trees
or fence posts. There might be a stack of mushroom logs in the shade somewhere.

The point with the food forest is that by combining plants that occupy different vertical levels
we can produce much bigger harvests, varied animal habitats, and more diverse diets with
less maintenance and less space than most imagine. This is the most productive, most
ecient means of vertical gardening.

Feature Image: Grapes on High (Courtesy of Peter Burka)

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ONE THOUGHT ON 5 DESIGNS FOR GROWING FOOD

VERTICALLY

JEN
February 5, 2017 at 5:30 pm

Fabulous video of the food forest especially the stop and names of the trees, herbs,
berries.. to recognise what is what more like this would be very much appreciated,
especially for cool climates like Tasmania for instance where the growing season is a bit
shorter.. Thank you

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