Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out

If you’ve ever felt limited by a small yard or patio but want to grow your own plants, vertical gardening is the perfect solution. Utilizing vertical space instead of ground space, a vertical garden allows you to grow flowers, fruits, and vegetables in a compact and efficient way. Also known as green walls, living walls, or eco walls, vertical gardens are now even being used in farming for crops like lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries. With all the advantages of vertical gardening, why grow out when you can grow up? 

Vertical gardens can thrive in a variety of settings. Whether you have a sunny balcony, a shaded patio, or a compact backyard, there’s a setup that will work for you. Some great places for a vertical garden include decks, porches, patios, small backyards, and even indoor living spaces with proper lighting.

Choosing Your Containers and Structures
A vertical garden can be built using many different materials, making it a fun and customizable project. Stacking containers are ideal for strawberries and herbs, while pallets work well for growing lettuce, herbs, and small flowers. Trellis fencing is a great choice for supporting squash, cucumbers, and baby butternut squash. Tripods or teepee shapes are perfect for supporting peas and beans. Upcycled materials, such as old fencing, blank walls, and repurposed containers, can be transformed into a unique and sustainable vertical garden.

How to Start Your Vertical Garden
To begin, choose a suitable container based on the plants you want to grow. Use a high-quality, well-draining soil mix to ensure proper plant growth. Decide whether you want to grow flowers, fruits, vegetables, or a combination of all three. Set up a watering system, such as a timed drip system for efficiency or manual watering for hands-on care. Position plants based on their light requirements to ensure proper growth, and plan for shade by strategically placing taller plants to protect lower-growing ones. Different plants require different fertilization schedules, so be sure to research your choices before applying nutrients.

Maintaining Your Vertical Garden
To keep your vertical garden thriving, regular maintenance is key. Fertilize plants as needed to ensure they receive the proper nutrients. Monitor the function of your watering system and adjust it as necessary. Regularly prune and trim plants to keep them healthy and encourage new growth. Train climbing plants by using ties or trellises to guide them upwards. Keep an eye out for pests and take preventive measures to protect your plants. Make sure your plants get enough sunlight and are shielded from strong winds to prevent damage.

A vertical garden opens endless possibilities for growing a lush, thriving green space in even the smallest areas. With a variety of containers, structures, and plant choices, you can customize your vertical garden to be just right for you. Plus, repurposing materials and containers makes it a sustainable and cost-effective gardening option. At the end of the growing season, you can reuse many of the materials for the next year, making it an investment in both beauty and practicality. So why limit yourself to traditional gardening when you can take your garden to new heights? Start your vertical garden today and enjoy the benefits of growing up, not out!

Vertical Gardening with Pallets

Have you always wanted a garden but didn’t think you had enough outdoor space? How would you like to grow your own ‘salad wall’? Not everyone has access to large garden spaces and cities are becoming more crowded and dependent on apartment living. By 2050, almost 80% of the earth's population will be living in urban areas.

Vertical pallet gardens or “green walls” are an innovative solution that has become quite popular! They are easy to create and very sustainable. Imagine being able to create a decorative succulent wall near your front door, or being able to have fresh vegetables right on your balcony! Vertical gardens help to reduce the carbon footprint by filtering pollutants and carbon dioxide out of the air, which improves our air quality.







Not only is pallet gardening fun and easy, below are a few benefits:

• use your space more efficiently
• conserve water
• decrease insects and disease
• reduce the need to weed
• eliminate back pain by decreasing bending which is easier on your back, knees, and hips

Wood pallets are a perfect choice for your green wall. You can often find them for very little money, or even for free! You can choose to lean or hang your pallet on a wall or fence, or make a stand to hold it. See this video for a variety of pallet gardening examples.




When selecting plants for your vertical garden, choose plants with a shallow root system: lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, arugula, spinach, chard, dwarf peas, parsley, bush beans, and kale. Herbs like rosemary, thyme, and basil are also perfect for pallet gardening as well.


It is important to know the right type of pallet to use. If you decide to grow food plants, use a pallet that is stamped “HT,” which means heat treated. This type of pallet does not have chemicals that can leach out into your garden. If recycling a used pallet, kill any bacteria that may be lurking inside by scrubbing down the wood with a bleach solution and then soapy water and let it dry before planting.




How to Build a Pallet Garden: See this video for a demonstration.




If you choose to line all 4 sides of the pallet with landscape fabric and cut holes in front for your plant, complete steps 1-3 first. If you choose not to, skip to step 4.

1. Lay your pallet down horizontally, and use a staple gun to adhere landscape fabric to the pallet.
2. Once you have 3 sides done, fill the pallet with potting soil. Press potting soil down firmly. 
3. Staple the last landscape fabric to the front of the pallet.
4. Transfer your plants while the pallet is still lying flat. It is a good idea to leave the pallet laying horizontally for 1-2 weeks to allow the young plants to take root. 
5. When watering, start at the top and water each section a little less because the water will seep downward to the bottom of the pallet. Water frequently as plants will dry out quickly. 
6. Fertilize your plants, as recommended specific to your plants, to provide them the nutrients they need to grow.