Specialty Gardening: Vertical Gardens, 0 by Jaywhacker

Jaywhacker wrote:
I like my EZgrow pole systems. With 20 plant sites per pole they will turn out a tremendous amount of fast growing vegetables in our long growing season here in central Texas. Many vegetable crops will mature in 30 to 40 days. The hydroponic type fertilizers designed for systems like this seem to be more effective than regular garden fertilizers and result in fast growing plants. Not too much labor involved in harvesting the plants, dumping the pots and removing root material and remounting the pots and replanting. For replanting, you have your choice of transplants or direct seeding.

A vertical pole of 20 flower plants can be spectacular. It is kind of fun to mix them up for different size and color.

Of all the various types of growing systems I have tried though, my favorite is still the single containers, ranging from one gallon to five gallon. A five gallon container contains about 1 square foot of growing surface and I can grow more than one plant per container depending on what type plants I am growing. I can pick up that container and move it easily to make sure it gets the right amount of sunshine or shade. Our summer has intense sunshine and heat and most plants really appreciate some afternoon shade. My fenced in yard has a combination of open areas and shade so I watch where the tree shadows fall throughout the day and arrange containers accordingly. I dont move them every day but as summer progress's, I shift their location so they get some dappled tree shade during part of each day. When it comes to harvest or re-potting time, it is simple to dump the single container, clean up the grow mix, slap the mix back in the container with some time release fertilizer, re-plant (seed or transplant) for whatever season is coming up, sit the container back where it gets the right sunshine, and take a coffee break. It seems to me that there is much less labor involved, not to mention much less expense, to single container planting. Rather than spend more money on expensive vertical grow systems, Im thinking of either building or buying tables to sit containers on to make it easier on my aging and aching body.

But Bob..........if you come up with a less expensive vertical growing system let me know. Im still willing to experiment some more.