Creative Vertical Garden
Grow up! Who hasn’t heard these words in their lives? Well, friends, it’s time to take those words to heart and put them into action. I am going to show you how to grow up with a vertical garden.
Am I the only one who is always searching for more places to grow things? Surely not. Indeed there must be more botanical addicts out there.
Where Else Can I Plant?
Regardless of how much land area my garden continues to consume, I am always looking for another little nook where I can squeeze in more plants!
That is where the vertical garden comes in like a best friend with all the answers.
So, what IS the answer you ask?
The answer is …Grow up!
Vertical gardening takes advantage of space you don’t realize you have until you use it. How awesome is that?
I readily admit my addiction. I’m not even bothered by it, judge me if you must. “Hello, my name is Amy and I grow stuff, everything, everywhere.”
I have trellises throughout my garden, playing host to so many wonderful vining plants. But this season I added a new vertical garden spot; a cucumber tunnel.
Vertical Garden – Cucumber Tunnel; Architecture that Produces
It was such a simple build and I thought it would be a great idea to share it with you.
If you follow me at all, you know that I tend to the frugal side. Ok, I squeak a little, but hey I have a family to feed so I figure it’s justified. I like to use products that I have on hand if at all possible.
Supplies Needed
I happened to have three hog panels that were not currently spoken for and a handful of t-posts. That was about all I needed to get this show on the road! Well, that and my muscular sidekicks… also known as my sons.
I already knew where I wanted to place my cucumber tunnel.
There was all this unused airspace just hanging out right above a couple of my raised beds so I figured, “what the heck, that air could use some plants!”
Vertical Garden Build – The Process
Step 1
I had my boys drive a few t-posts into the ground that could solidly attach to the hog panels and take on the load of the cucumber plants. You would be surprised at how heavy that mass of plants and produce can weigh!
Step 2
With t-posts in place, we had to work together to bend the hog panels around enough to fasten to the posts. We used baling wire, which is always laying around the place somewhere, to secure them.
Hog panels are, let’s say, ‘springy’. You’ve gotta get a good grip on them or you could find yourself flying across the garden. The panels are 16 feet long by 4 feet wide and the path between my beds is right around 3 feet. We really had to ‘squish’ it in and secure it well.
There is not much chance that I would have been able to complete this project alone, without the risk of serious injury anyway. I am very thankful that my sons are strong and easily bribed.
Step 4
I also went to the added measure of placing extra boards near the top of the tunnel. I fed them through from one side to the other, using a protruding screw as a ‘latch’, if you will.
Step 5
The last element that I added was basically ‘filler’ to connect the gaps. My raised beds are 16 feet long, but I only had a total of 12 feet of hog panels for it. When we placed the panels, I made sure there were gaps in between the panels of about 2 feet each.
In these gaps, I ‘wove’ in sticks from one panel to the next in a ladder pattern, to span the gap and add more trellis, or growing space.
That is all that was required to construct this amazing piece of architecture. (technically, a tunnel IS considered architecture)
All that was left was to plant my seedlings and watch them grow to take over that unused airspace!
And, Did it Work?
Boy howdy did it ever! I’ve canned up over 250 jars of pickles this season! (I stopped counting after that point!)
So, What are you Waiting for?
Go find yourself a piece of unused airspace and do a little vertical gardening of your own!
DON’T MISS ANYTHING!!
Be sure to check out DIY Farm Projects – Awe-Inspiring Skills You Need to Love as well as 9 Gardening Tips – Getting Started *Great Success for more great related information. Go ahead and subscribe here as well as the Two Oaks Farmstead Youtube Channel so that you never miss any of the terrific content! And if you happen to enjoy the more personal side of the simple life, be sure to check out A Life on the Farm.
