Vertical Gardens
Resource from Annies.com, developed by the Center for Ecoliteracy
Kids love to climb and watch others — both people and animals — climb. They are often thrilled to realize that they can train plants to climb too. Vertical gardens provide a venue for them to experiment with an infinite number of strategies for encouraging plants to go up.
Soil is optional in some vertical gardens, and it is an exciting lesson in botany to learn how to grow plants without it. Most kids have seen plants forcing their way through a crack in the sidewalk or floating on the surface of a lake, but they may not realize that some plants can flourish in mediums other than soil.
What are Vertical Gardens?
A vertical garden is a garden that grows up rather than out. Usually, people install vertical gardens to save space, but they also can offer fascinating aesthetics. They work well in small areas and urban environments with little outside space for a garden. These gardens can be very productive, considering the minimal space they require to thrive.
Plants in a vertical garden can grow up a trellis, arbor, or pergola, or even up a wall, fence, light pole, or drainpipe. Sometimes containers such as garden pots hooked on a trellis or fence are attached to the vertical structure. There are also commercial vertical gardens that include planter pockets and hydroponic systems.
Advantages
Small Space, Big Results - They take up very little space and can be quite productive.
Great for Climbing Plants - They are ideal for growing plants that climb naturally, like runner beans, peas, gourds, chayote, passion fruit, kiwi, grapes, and flowering vines.
Visually Stimulating - They add height to horizontal gardens, making them more visually thought-provoking.
Covers Unsightly Walls and Fences - Hanging wall gardens can beautify unattractive walls and fences. Cozy, Shady Spaces They can create intimate space in larger gardens and provide shade on hot, sunny days.
Disadvantages
Limited Growing Options - Not all plants do well in vertical gardens. For example, plants that do not climb tend to struggle in a vertical garden, and large plants such as corn, squash, and tomatoes need wider spaces for their roots to spread.
Tall for Kids - Vertical gardens are often difficult for children to access.
Space Is Limited - They are not ideal for working with large groups of students.
Can Be an Incomplete Teaching Tool - Hydroponic hanging wall gardens are very productive, but they also leave out a very important piece of the biological puzzle in a garden: soil.
Can Be Expensive - Vertical gardens can be expensive when purchased as a kit or a custom-made design.
Designing the Garden
1. Choosing a Location:
Before you begin to develop your vertical garden, observe how the sunlight moves through the space.
Vines that grow on trellises, arbors, or pergolas will need at least 6–8 hours of direct sunlight per day.
In general, east-, west-, and south-facing walls will be the best for growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers in the Northern Hemisphere, but hanging gardens can grow well with different orientations as long as you make sure that you choose a more shade-tolerant type of planting for north-facing walls. Consider other activities that may impact the garden, such as sports or other play, as well as the configuration of the space. For example, narrow corridors with heavy traffic may not work for a hanging wall or fence garden.
Think about the average height of your students. Will they be able to reach the garden without a ladder?
Will they be able to help build it without much technical knowledge?
How many kids will be able to engage with the vertical garden at one time?
2. Selecting Materials
Trellises can be built out of many different materials such as wood, bamboo, iron, and reinforcement steel. They can be purchased or made by hand.
Hanging wall gardens can also be purchased or built by hand. If you want to build a wall garden, consider making hanging containers out of wood, recycled plastic, repurposed lightweight containers such as watering cans, or breathable felt cloth like the material used to make “Woolly Pockets.”
Whatever you use, make sure the containers are securely fastened to the wall or fence.
3. Selecting Soil
For trellised gardens, it is easiest to use an organic soil mix from a nursery, local topsoil straight out of the ground, or a combination of the two. Regardless of the source, apply a fertilizer, such as organic compost or decomposed animal manure, that is appropriate for the types of plants you will grow.
For most hanging wall gardens, you’ll need to use a growing medium such as soil. Choosing which type to use will depend on the type of garden you are building. A hanging container or pocket garden should have organic soil mix, similar to that in raised beds or container gardens.
A hydroponic hanging wall does not need soil. It does, however, need a system for adding nutrients to the water and cycling water from the bottom of the wall garden to the top after it percolates down. It needs a water reservoir, pump, and a nearby power source to plug in the pump. Unless you have carpentry skills, purchasing this equipment is advisable. Many hanging hydroponic garden kits have solar panels connected to them so that when the sun shines, the solar energy pumps water from the reservoir back up to the top of the garden.
4. Choosing Plants
Climbing plants such as runner beans, peas, gourds, chayote, passion fruit, kiwi, grapes, and flowering vines are best for trellis gardens.
Smaller plants such as herbs, lettuces, and leafy greens grow well in hanging wall gardens, whether in a container with soil or grown hydroponically.
5. Maintaining a Vertical Garden
Maintaining a vertical garden is similar to maintaining any garden. For information on maintenance, see the sidebars “Harvesting” in the Introduction, “Irrigating Your Garden” in this chapter, “Composting” in Chapter 3, and “Weeding” and “Controlling Pests” in Chapter 4.
Maintaining hydroponic vertical gardens is different, however. They must be checked regularly and the water level in the reservoir must be closely monitored, since water is lost to the plants and evaporation. Since they use an electrical power pump, remember to clean it on a regular basis and to replenish the nutrients in the water regularly. Plants often grow very quickly in hydroponic agricultural systems, so frequent harvesting and replanting is also necessary.
Checklist of Materials for Vertical Gardens
When building a trellis garden you will need:
A premade trellis, arbor, pergola, or the building materials to make one (bamboo, wood, reinforcement steel); a light pole or vertical drainpipe
Tools to work with the building materials (saws, drills, hammers, nails/screws, level, welding tools, etc.)
Soil
Plants that like to climb
When building a hanging wall garden you will need:
Containers to attach to the wall or fence (either wooden, plastic, burlap, or woven recycled plastic such as “Woolly Pockets”)
Brackets and screws/bolts to attach containers to the wall or fence
Plants that will thrive in a small container (see illustration, previous page) When building a hydroponic hanging wall garden you will need:
A premade hydroponic hanging wall kit or the materials to make one
Plants that will thrive in a hydroponic garden