The Vertical Gardening Guidebook Read Free Page B

painted or mortar surfaces because plants can cause damage to these types of structures. Brick walls are usually alright, but Ivy vines can cause damage to the bricks so be warned!

    Wall vertical gardens can be extremely elaborate like in this picture or much simpler – it’s up to you.
    Make sure to place your vining plants in an area where you don’t mind them spreading. Some plants end up growing vertically too far, reaching the gutters of homes and eventually pulling them down with their weight. Morning Glories are notorious for doing this.
    Some of the plants you grow may have to be tied to their structure, such as with tomatoes, otherwise they will spread across the ground – defeating the purpose of vertical gardening.
    When you grow plants on the walls outside of your home, it can help prevent your home from getting damaged by acid rain and other pollution, and it helps to keep the soil around the home from flooding because the vertical garden will soak up extra rain water. It creates a great year-round eco-system that absorbs pollutants and natural gas – naturally!
    Planters and Gutters
    If you decide to use planters or rain gutters, make sure to purchase them between eight inches and 12 inches so that they’re strong enough to support the plants. These can be placed along your wall. If the pieces are too long, you can use a saw to make them the right size.
    Holes will also need to be drilled at the bottom of the gutters or planters, which should be around six inches apart. This will allow water to drain, so that the roots of your plants don’t end up rotting from sitting in water.

    A gutter garden like the one pictured above can be created with just a normal rain gutter and a wire or hook to hold it in place. Just make sure not to place it somewhere that’s exposed to strong winds because it could get damaged and your garden could get ruined from a wind storm.
     

Choosing the Type of Gardening Style You’ll Use
    There are many different forms of vertical gardening. There are three types of vertical gardens that you can start in your home, including the following:
    Traditional – This is the most common way for growing vertical gardens, which uses soil.
    Hydroponics – Another form of gardening that is gaining popularity, which uses no soil, only water and aqua-life. This method is expensive to set up. I don’t cover hydroponics in this book because it can be very complicated, especially if you’re going the aquaponics route and requires a lot of specialized equipment and knowledge.
    Aeroponics – A new technique that is picking up momentum in the planting world. This too can be used for vertical gardening and the awesome thing about this method is that it requires no water systems or soil, only nutrient-rich water. We’ll get more into this later in Chapter 11.
    Choosing What to Grow in Your Vertical Garden
    There’s a large variety of plants that you can grow in your vertical garden. The site you choose will determine how many large and widespread plants that you will be able to grow. The setup of your vertical garden will also play a role in what types of plants you’ll be able to grow.
    The most popular plants that are grown in vertical gardens are vine and creeping plants. Even gardeners, who aren’t necessarily converting to vertical gardening, use vertical supports like beanpoles and trellises to grow their, gourds, zucchini and peas.
    Fruits, vegetables, perennials and annuals can all be grown in vertical gardens. Those that have vines are the best suited, such as grapes, strawberries, Morning Glories, melons and pumpkins. Plants that vine offer higher yields, which is always a great thing. Other plants that you can choose that don’t grow vertically on their own can also be grown, including raspberries, roses and tomatoes. Some people even grow small trees on their patios!
    If you decide to go with tomatoes, you should choose a variety that is indeterminate because their stems continue