Take Your Spring Planting Vertical for Dramatic Effect

The past few years, I have noticed more and more ways to go vertical in your garden. Bringing your plants and flowers up and away from the ground level not only expands the area available for planting, but greatly increases the interest and visual impact of your space. If you have only ever placed plants in ground level pots or in the soil directly, you may be a little reluctant to explore this vertical space, but there are easy ways to get started. Here are a few.

Install hanging planters

If you have an expanse of fence or a blank wall, that could be a perfect place to install hanging planters and add a beautiful splash of color. Make sure to anchor your planters securely using the proper tools and fasteners for the base material you are working with, be it brick, wood, stucco or another surface.

Take caution when selecting plants, as the raised and exposed surface may be much warmer and more brightly lit than the nearby ground. A brick wall facing west, for example, retains heat long after the sun goes down. You may need to select plants that are better able to handle heat and direct sunlight and water more frequently in order to keep your blooms healthy.

Build a flower tower

You can build a tall, flowering tower of sorts using either large diameter PVC pipe drilled with randomly spaced holes or a cylinder made of sturdy fence lined with black plastic. If you use the fence and plastic, cut X-shaped holes, randomly spaced in the plastic up and down the cylinder.

Fill the cylinder of your choice with potting soil, then plant petunias, impatiens or other bright, spreading flowers in the randomly spaced holes. Plant flowers in the top of the cylinder, too. You can stick with all one color, or place a variety of colors for a more striking effect. The tower will look sparse at first, but with a little water and fertilizer, the flowers will fill in quickly and give you a blooming column of color all summer long.

Climbing vines of color

One of the easiest ways to add color to a porch or trellis is to plant a hardy, climbing vine that flowers all summer long. Morning glories or clematis add gorgeous blossoms within ever climbing greenery, and you can train them to go wherever you want with just a little bit of twine.

Not sure if you want to keep a spreading vine in your garden forever? That's okay. Just plant it in a large pot, like you would any other seasonal plant, and let it grow for the summer. If you want to do something different the next year, just pull the vines down in the fall and replant with something different in the spring.

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6 High Yield Fruits and Vegetables to Grow on a Fence

If you want to grow some vegetables but don't think you have the space, why not look upwards instead? Vertical gardening lets you take advantage of fences, trellises and exterior walls to grow fruits and vegetables in tiny spaces.

Blackberries or raspberries

I grow my berry bushes along a chain link fence which does a great job of camouflaging the alley while keeping my family well supplied with fresh berries. A healthy blackberry bush will produce between 10-20 pounds of fruit a season, a single raspberry bush slightly less.

Grapes

Grapes are another family favorite at our house though do require full sun to grow. Grape vines can be trained to grown along a fence, over a pergola or on a trellis. I usually harvest about 15-20 clusters of grapes per plant.

Lemon cucumbers

I've only started growing this unusual vegetable a few years ago and love the compact size of the fruit which makes it ideal for growing along a porch rail or small trellis. Lemon cucumber plants are very prolific and easy to grow. Last year, our average yield was between 20-30 cucumbers per plant.

Pole Beans

Certain bean varieties are known as "pole" plants, meaning they can be trained to climb upon a fence or trellis for bountiful yields. Pole beans have 2-3 times the yield of bush varieties and have a much longer growing season. Average yield per plant is about 5-6 pounds.

Pickling cucumbers

Our family eats a lot of relish which is why pickling cucumbers are a staple in my garden too. Pickling cucumbers are much smaller than standard market cucumbers which means that they won't break the vine as they grow. Most pickle and relish recipes call for at least 4-6 pounds of pickles per recipe which is why you'll need to plant at least 8 plants.

Apples, peaches, plums, and cherries

While we don't think about growing fruit trees along a fence line, the old art of espalier training makes it possible to grow orchard fruits in tight, compact spaces along a fence or a wall. The yields are fantastic in relation to the space -- for instructions for espalier training fruit trees in your yard, check out the Mother Earth News article: How to espalier apple trees. Need more ideas? check this article called 4 Fruits You Can Easily Grow

A lack of yard space doesn't mean that you can't have a micro orchard or vegetable garden. Thanks to vining fruits, pole vegetables, and tree varieties that can be espalier trained, it is possible to grow food for your family in hardly any space at all.

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Try Vertical Gardening with These 4 Climbing Vines

When gardening space is limited or you want to draw the eye upward or you need to hide something unsightly in your landscape, a climbing vine may be the answer. The vertical growth of climbing takes up only small amount of landscape space (none if the plants are grown in containers) and their growing habits can be used to provide shade, color and/or camouflage in an outdoor space.

Mandevilla
Mandevilla is an easy-care climbing vine that gives a tropical feel to an outdoor space with its large, colorful blooms. Mandevilla grows quickly and produces dark green foliage that stays green year 'round and makes a perfect backdrop for the large pink, white and red exotic-looking blooms that bloom all summer. This vine can be grown in a container or in-ground and will reach a mature height of about 10 feet. In cold, northern climates, mandevilla will die down to ground level and go into dormancy after the first frost, but will perk up and return to life when warm weather arrives in spring.

Clematis
Clematis is a popular and colorful climbing vine. It's an easy-to-grow vine that produces large blooms in white, red, purple and pink. This vertical growing vine will reach a mature height of 10 feet and when planted in a sunny location and given a thick layer of much to keep it's roots cool. Clematis come in spring-blooming varieties, summer-blooming varieties and some new hybrid varieties that provide summer blooms and a brilliant fall foliage.

Wisteria
If fragrance and jaw-dropping blooms are on your wishlist for vertical growing vines, then wisteria is the vine for you. Wisteria grows fast and is often used to create a living roof on top of pergolas and arbors. Mature wisteria vine will become heavy and will need a sturdy support system to grow on.

Climbing Roses
Climbing roses are romantic and sentimental beauties that can be trained to grow up and over any outdoor structure. Trellises, arbors and fences are a given support structure for climbing roses, but the flexible canes can also be trained to grow vertical against the side of a garage or other outdoor structure that needs to be camouflaged. Climbing roses will produce fragrant and colorful blooms all summer when planted in a sunny location and provided with a steady supply of water and fertilize.

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What’s New in Vertical Gardens?

Are you bored with your old, ordinary garden? Are you looking to take your gardening skills to new heights this year? Then it's time for you to explore what's new in vertical gardens. From planter frames to growing walls, today's gardens have gone upright. Here are five new types of gardens that grow vertical rather than horizontal, giving you a new twist on an old, favorite past time.

• Planter Walls and Frames

When space is a problem and you still have the need to cultivate, you can always go vertical. Planter walls and frames are the current trend in gardening. Created with rows of pockets on a wall, vertical planter frames are a unique microenvironment that facilitates the growth of succulents, herbs or other plants in a self-contained unit using synthetic, felt-based growing pockets. These units can be planted, arranged and rearranged to make living sculpture of natural texture on your walls.

• Growing Walls

If you want to go vertical in a really big way, consider an all-out growing wall. Large panels of wire mesh are used to create the outer wall of a building. The wire frame is then covered in vine-growing plants. When mature and full, the walls present a unified wall of plant life that envelopes a living or working space.

• Stacked Cinder Block Container Walls

Create a wall of vertically-stacked cinder blocks for your own version of a homemade vertical garden. Arrange the blocks in random, cross-stacked configurations to house pockets of plants in exposed middle openings. This do-it-yourself project is both budget-friendly and clever.

• Vertical Planters

Vertical planters come in all shapes and sizes. Wood or metal structures hold planter boxes in vertical alignment to carry your flower or herb gardens in small spaces like decks, patios or balconies. Some are designed to take up no more than six to eight inches of floor space.

• Leaning Planters

Just like the modern designs of leaning wood shelves or magazine racks, leaning planters are sleek, simple creations akin to ladders for plants on your wall. These vertical gardens are light, airy and open structures that don't close in the space they occupy and work well in any contemporary-styled room.

The Vertical Gardens ideabook on Houzz has great examples of what's new in vertical gardens this year. Stop by and see which vertical garden would bring a spark of life to your space.

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