12 Reasons Why You Should Garden Vertically

Vertical Gardening Benefits

Regardless of where you live, I’m a firm believer you can take advantage of some of the many benefits vertical gardening offers.

The advantages of vertical gardens really come into their own in micro garden spaces where options are very limited. As most people live in urban areas, clever design ideas are a key to make the most of the space you have.

So if you’re not yet growing up, here are 12 reasons why you should!

“Vertical gardening is an innovative, effortless, and highly productive growing system that uses bottom-up and top-down supports for a wide variety of plants in both small and large garden spaces.” – Derek Fell, author Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out for More Vegetables & Flowers in Much Less Space

12 Reasons Why You Should Garden Vertically

1. Maximise Limited Space

When you garden vertically, you can ncrease your growing space especially when it is at a premium in a very tiny area.

This kitchen garden has effectively used techniques like stacking raised garden beds and growing climbing veggies up trellises. These increase productivity and make maximum use of space.

2. Create a Garden Room

Some vertical structures like arbors, arches, pergolas and gazebos help create the ambience of an outdoor garden ‘room’. A vertical garden structure helps to focus the eye on the mystery beyond.  Overhead vertical garden structures also give a sense of height and depth to an otherwise small space.

An arbor at an entrance or on a pathway can frame a space, invite you further into the garden and provide an appealing vertical structure to add colour and character.

3. Grow a Privacy Screen

Disguise unwanted views, nosy neighbours and create more privacy. For example, grow a green wall to screen a boxy air conditioner and unattractive garden structures like sheds or compost bays.

4. Increase Accessibility

Plants are easier to reach by bringing them up off the ground. Gardening vertically makes fertilising, watering, pruning and harvesting much more convenient and saves your back.

This micro garden space takes advantage of stacking plants with a step ladder and clustering pots on the ground and on repurposed chairs.

5. Nurture Healthier Plants

When you raise your plants up off the ground, this improves air circulation. This is a simple strategy for healthier plants and less pest or disease problems.  You can also minimise plant damage due to pets or wild animals digging up gardens on the ground.

6. Enhance Visual Appeal

Improve the beauty of your garden and increase ‘curb appeal’ by adding character, variety, structure and colour. Create ‘eye candy’ by planting at eye level with vertical garden structures like hanging baskets and window boxes.

Add street appeal with window boxes – repeating the same colours here really gives a WOW factor and helps brighten up the exterior.

7. Grow More Plants

Expand the number and kind of plants you can grow in your garden.  Some vegetables like pumpkins that grow on vines can take up a lot of personal space. However, you can train dwarf varieties to grow up and over a trellis in a very compact space. You can garden vertically with many climbers including cucumbers, tomatoes, passionfruit and melons.

8. Obtain a Higher Crop Yield

You can enjoy a more productive harvest of food crops by growing up and using vertical gardening techniques like espalier.

Espaliered trees take up minimal space but increase fruit crop yields significantly. Here these apple trees from the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen are growing in a serpentine shape and on another fan shape wire trellis on the right.

9. Reduce the Impact of an Urban Environment

You can use vertical gardens to soften otherwise hard or stark building and landscape surfaces. Camouflage with living green walls and other vertical design features.

A repurposed window shutter forms the structure for a simple but stylish vertical garden.

Research by the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Cambridge has found that “a layer of vegetation can reduce heat loss from buildings, cutting the wind chill factor by 75% and heating demand by 25%.”

10. Define a Space

Create an entrance, backdrop or framework; define boundaries and edges; and provide a sense of enclosure or seclusion.

This compact deck area cleverly screens out neighbours with vegies in planter boxes and lattice screens. It makes an inviting, functional and edible garden space while not compromising on the entertaining area.

11. Create a Microclimate

You can insulate your home from heat, air pollution or noise by designing in a living natural shield. This can help to regulate temperature by cooling and shading an area.

You can also create a microclimate by adding a vertical structure like a tepee, trellis, pergola, arbor, arch or A-frame that will provide shade below.  The cooler spot under the support will suit shade-loving plants and sun worshippers will thrive climbing up and over so you get the best of both worlds.

12. Improve Air Quality and your Health

Research has revealed that plants improve both indoor and outdoor air quality by removing harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and absorbing pollutants.  Houses have been found to have consistently poorer air quality indoors than out, even with external pollution.

So, growing plants vertically even in compact spaces like windowsills, balconies, front entrances and hanging in aerial space will make a BIG difference to your health.

This was an awesome lemon juicer made by Wedgwood. Sadly, it broke whilst juicing a lime but has now been recycled into a plant pot instead on the kitchen windowsill.

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I hope these 12 vertical gardening benefits have helped inspire you to start gardening vertically! Check out the many tips and photos in other articles for more inspiration.

Related Articles: Add Space with Creative Vertical Gardens: Part 1 and Part 2; and 15 Helpful Design Tips for Vertical Gardens.  You can find even more Clever Design Ideas in the Container Gardening category.

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© Copyright Anne Gibson, The Micro Gardener 2013. https://themicrogardener.com. All rights reserved.

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