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According to the National Garden Bureau, the average backyard vegetable in the 70s was about 1000 square feet – and now it is typically 200 square feet. A glut of development has seen houses being built with smaller yards, and the ‘farm model’ of growing food at home is becoming obsolete.
Those who want to reap the rewards of vegetable gardening while dealing with a minimum of space should consider growing vertically. Exploiting the airspace above the garden effectively doubles its production capabilities.
Vegetables that grow well vertically include lima beans, green pole beans, cucumbers, melons, peas, squash, and indeterminate (tall-growing) tomato plants.
Plants grown vertically can be planted more closely together than is traditional. As the young vegetables form, they are less prone to rot than vegetables lying on the ground. As the plants grow taller, they have better access to the available sunlight. Because they take up only a few square inches of surface soil, the rest of the bed can be planted with lower-growing, bushy varieties of vegetables (peppers, herbs, and salad greens). When vertical growers are mixed with other crops, the National Garden Bureau suggests orienting beds on a north-south axis. This ensures that the plant-covered trellises don’t block the sun (thereby shading out the low-growers) as it travels from east to west during the day.
Erecting trellis supports is always a time-consuming problem. A variety of free-standing supports are available in garden catalogs. One of the simplest and cheapest ways to build your own is to simply sink two posts into the ground and stretch chicken wire between them.
Cucumbers and beans present no special problems, but heavier vegetables such as melons and squash may become too heavy for the vine to support. Keep an eye on these, and before they begin to strain the vine, construct a ‘hammock’ support for each vegetable from nylon hosiery. Cut the legs off a pair of pantyhose and slit the legs open. This will leave you with a long, fairly wide strip of stretchy nylon. Tie each end to the trellis on either side of the vegetable you’re supporting, then position the vegetable in its hammock.
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