Deck Gardening-Vertical Garden Design

I have a great deck with lots of space but my wife only likes to plant flowers and although I enjoy the look I wanted to do something more functional, like vegetables and herbs. However I am relegated to a small corner of the deck, we had no more pots left and I had no idea how to grow in a small space like that. I needed to think of a good garden design.

My Vertical Garden Design came about serendipitously but I think that there are lots of ways to build something similar. Maybe this will just get the creative juices flowing enough to do your own thing. Lots of links in this article for other ideas too.

Here is how I went vertical with my garden...

My wife, who works retail, needed help cleaning out a storage unit for her store and I found a vertical rack with movable bins that looked perfect for my Vertical Garden. It is roughly 6ft tall and I figured I could get about 5 racks on with enough sun to grow anything.

The racks I lined with garden fabric and filled with dirt. In two racks I did butter lettuce and spinach. In the other racks I planted cilantro, chives, some sweet peas and parsley. So in this case by going vertical I put 20ft of planting in a 4ft by 6ft space which is much more efficient.

This same effect can be gained thru a wood frame and boxes as well, maybe using an A-Frame to hold the containers. Just be careful with the weight of the dirt, remembering they will hold added water weight as well.

Many vertical gardens will utilize vine plants and grow up a trellis to grow more vegetables more efficiently. My vertical gardening system worked out a little differently but is still well suited to urban gardening and small space gardening. My rack can hold bins on both sides so I get 4ft times 5 bins that are 4ft by 10in and about 4in deep. So I got about 24 plants squeezed in, not bad.

You can see in the images that one of the racks in the rear will be shaded more often and that one I put lettuce in because it needs less sun. However the rack is also light enough to turn and let the NW facing side, which is also shaded by trees, get some sun too. This should allow for adequate sun and medium sized veges and herbs.

• UPDATE: April 2010
  

The plants are growing very well now. A few days to dry out has done the spinach well. We did burgers, mine was a Jucy Lucy, mmm, and we used the lettuce from the garden! It is so much more satisfying when you grow it, pick it, eat it yourself. Perfect Day!

• UPDATE: June 2010
  

Most of my plants have gone nuts! This in only about 6in of dirt too. Spinach didn't do as well and I replaced that with some other herbs instead. The sweet peas are taking over almost and are about ready to harvest some. The Cilantro and Chives are huge and I will post new pics this weekend, stay tuned!

• UPDATE: July 2010
  

The Sweet Peas are all finished, they were super good and did really well in this vertical garden system. I made a few salads with them and dipped them in ranch too. I added some Stevia and Oregano to the bottom rack and they are doing well.

So now I have a small space filled with my own Organic vegetables to pick at for the next few months for roughly $120 and an hour of my time. With lettuce being what it is in the store and having about 12 heads now, in about a month I should be able to feed off them and save about $40 a month for about 8 months off and on or until the lettuce bolts. Hey, a penny saved is a penny earned I say.

• Here is a site dedicated to lettuce growing, check it out.

• Also here is a good article on keeping your lettuce going once the heat of summer comes.