Vertical Gardening for Beginners - Memphis Area Master Gardeners (2024)

• Vegetables– Climbing beans and vining tomatoes like to grow up strings, along fences, and require little training. Cherry tomatoes and hot peppers do well in small containers and are colorful, too. Don’t forget that cucumbers are vines and do very well along fences. Squash can hog too much space if grown at ground level, but supporting them on a large trellis can be ideal to keep the squash off the ground while providing more growing space for the lush vines. Herbs grown in a shoe rack or in pots on a fence provide beauty and culinary opportunities

• Fruits – Grapes and espaliered fruit trees require special layering techniques. They’re not difficult to master but may make a better project for an intermediate gardener. A beginning gardener might be more satisfied with fruit that isn’t going to be difficult to grow vertically, i.e., strawberries and kiwi vines.

• Flowers – If you’re looking for eye-popping colorful plants, creeping phlox or morning glories are two flowering vines that shower vertical planters with a profusion of colorful flowers. However, even bushes like lantana can be trained to drip off hanging planters. Nasturtiums come in creeping varieties that are excellent for placing in vertical pockets here and there, even in between other plants. Nasturtiums are also edible, so you get beauty and food at the same time. Succulents can make an attractive display when placed on a variety of vertical gardening structures.

Fertilize and Water Often

Since the soil is in separate pockets in some vertical growing systems, you will need to use an all-around soluble fertilizer when you water at least twice during the growing season. This will deliver nutrients into the soil and along the foliage. In this way, you keep nutrients in the soil as they have a tendency to get depleted over time as the water drains from the vertical beds. As vertical gardens dry out faster than planted beds, the planters and containers need watering more often. One way to keep vertical gardens watered enough is to install a watering system to deliver water to the roots of the plants, even as they grow vertically. Drip irrigation can be used with vertical planters and containers to provide adequate moisture for thirsty container plantings. Otherwise, group planters near the water source to make it easier to keep them thoroughly watered.

Create Architectural Interest in the Garden

Once you have the hang of growing vertically, you can start to create rooms within your garden using arched climbing structures, fencing, and trellises. You can separate areas and define vertical boundaries of a garden room. For instance, if you want to give your outdoor patio or deck some definition and privacy, you could install a vertical wall or trellis to grow a privacy screen or border. This would separate the area visually and give you more privacy. In addition, you can create paths along your garden with arbors that are strategically placed to separate one part of the garden from another. Understanding how to grow vertically not only provides you more room to grow your favorite plants, but it also is a key component of designing secret gardens that create their own separate magical spaces within a larger enclosure.