Oh Grow Up!

I suppose you can call me an adult. I am a little bit bigger and have a few more responsibilities. I have a house and property and a family. However, I refused, for the longest time, to admit that I had ‘grown up’.

Well, it has come to my attention that I have, in fact, grown up. Last year I grew beans on a tipi frame and peas on a box-spring frame. This year I’ll be doing the same thing and a few other similar experiments.

If you learn about and practice the art of vertical gardening, next time someone tells you to ‘grow up’ you can tell them you have. Here I’ll give you a few examples and at the end of this post will be a few links to books about the subject.

You will need a few things to get you started. First, you will need a south facing vertical object suitable for planting in or on and containers for hanging. Next you will need a good source of water. Then you will need to decide what you’re going to plant, whether it’s vegetables, herbs or flowers. Lastly, you need to love and nurture your new venture.

I like to take pictures of my growing things and the process I’m going through. Taking pictures and keeping a garden journal helps me keep track of where I am and keep others updated. It gives me a good source of “Look what I did!” for this blog.

Vertical gardening is not only fun for many but it adds space if you are limited and it can add beauty and character to any surface used. It’s great for apartment dwellers or even room renters. Visit “Life on the Balcony” for more info.

Even ‘the mainstream’ is getting into vertical gardening. This vertical grow frame from Home Depot is not very large but is perfect for growing herbs in the kitchen. Here’s an article from Washington State University that contains some good info and some great resources. Here’s a link to the Vertical Garden Institute, self explanatory. And last but not least, I can’t leave out the organization that helped get me interested in gardening and self sufficiency, Mother Earth News. Here is one of their articles called “Vertical Gardening Techniques for Maximum Returns”.

Here are a few pictures of vertical gardening. The first one is my repurposed box spring frame that we’re growing beans on. The second is my tomato raised bed which will get an additional ‘something’ for the tomatoes to grow up on. The third is my ‘potato pile’. After that are a few pictures from around the internet of various vertical gardening techniques.

Now, to help you along your way, here are a few books dedicated to vertical gardening. For more info about each book, simply click on the picture of the cover.

As always you can join my Facebook group, like my Facebook community, and visit my website. All of these are conveniently called “Kaya Self Sufficiency”. I hope you have enjoyed this post and I hope you are getting better at providing as much as you can for yourself and for your family, group, or community.