Growing Up
Growing vegetables on vertical supports allows for smaller footprints, more access to sunlight, less damage to the produce from rainstorms or critters, and easier harvesting.
It makes the vegetable garden look pretty and whimsical too: between the bean teepees, the cucumber lattices, cordon trees and grapevine trained on lattices and arbors, vining tomatoes and sprawling zucchini, one can turn an awkward back alley into a magical bountiful paradise.
No room for herbs and flowers? No problem. You can attach pots to the trellises and grow them that way.
Use tower planters and hanging baskets for strawberries and salad, dirt bags for upside down tomatoes, mixed containers of vegetables and flowers and exotic dangling gourds hanging overhead for effect.
As for the drawbacks, plants grown vertically can’t protect their moisture as well as their garden counterparts, so they need to be watered a lot more, especially if grown in containers, and the fall cleanup can get tedious when you have to untangle countless dried up vines from twine and wire supports.
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