The Virtues of Planting an Organic Vertical Garden

After many attempts at growing a garden inground and having animals (chipmunks and ground hogs) eat or even worse take bites out of the vegetables, we decided to grow the garden up and off the ground.

Basically, the garden is organic because there aren't any pesticides used and the fertilizer is natural.

Allow yourself 120 days for the planting and growing season. If you plant in June, you will have your garden until September. Therefore, you can gauge when you will have productive vegetables.

Begin by constructing the poles and boxes. The poles are 2" X 6" and should be secured into the ground. They are usually sold at home stores in 8' or 10' sizes.

On top of the poles, center a block of wood and then place the box on the top. Secure in the center with nails. The platform beneath the box provides balance so the soil and plants will be sturdy.

We mixed naturally decomposed leaves and grass clippings with a 40 lb bag of Humus & Manure (shown in photo) along with a 40 lb bag of Topsoil (next photo).

The humus helps with water retention, the manure is a natural fertilizer that adds nutrients, and the topsoil (also called loam) is used to dress the soil.

Add the assorted soils mentioned to the boxes. Mounds can be created to accommodate tomatoes or any other vegetables that may have a deeper root system and require more soil.

Do be mindful of the weight of the soil and plants in the boxes. Don't overload either.

When in doubt, use multiple boxes. Plant seeds as normal and to water the plants, mist them instead of using an intense stream of water from the hose.

When planting a vertical garden, you will catch alot of sunlight and so you will have a thriving garden.

The following vegetables grow well in a vertical organic garden: eggplant, zucchini, beans, peas, squash, tomatoes.

We decided to plant the tomatoes in a plastic pot and placed it in the box (as seen in photo).

Even though the garden is vertical and small rodents and pests can't reach the vegetables, there is one pest that somehow finds it's way upward, the dreaded Tomato Horn Worm.

This is the larvae of the Hawk Moth and it does alot of damage to the tomatoes as seen in photo.

We cut these ugly worms in pieces and as they were left outside, we saw the birds eat them!

Despite the amount of work it takes to set up the boxes, soil and planting, there are sweet rewards.

You will enjoy the beauty of the flowers and the fruit of your labor, be it zucchini or eggplants.

No products or services were given to me in order to write this article.

All photos in this article were taken by the author, Camille Gizzarelli.