Video: Vertical Garden Growing Basics | Trellising Tips & Recommendations with Niki Jabbour

One of my favorite ways to maximize space in my vegetable garden is to grow crops up. Growing vertical vegetables allows me to fit more plants into a limited space, but there are other benefits, too.

Here are five reasons you should consider growing vertical vegetables.

  1. It can reduce insect and disease problems by improving air circulation in and around the plants. Growing crops up also keeps foliage off the ground where soil-borne diseases can quickly spread.
  2. Plants grown vertically are also exposed to more sunlight which promotes healthy plants and optimum growth.
  3. When growing vegetables like cucumbers vertically it's far easier to spot the fruits because when these plants are grown on the ground, they create a very dense cover of leaves and you might accidentally leave a few fruits to over mature on the plants, which can slow overall production. Growing them up means the fruits are easy to spot and easy to harvest.
  4. I also think growing vegetables on structures like tunnels or trellises adds beauty and structure to the garden.
  5. As I mentioned a minute ago, you can save space and increase production. For example, when growing pole beans and bush beans in the same size space, pole bean plants can yield two to three times the harvest of the bush beans. If you're growing in a backyard greenhouse or polytunnel, growing vegetables vertically is an easy way to maximize that covered space.

Now that we know why it's a good idea to grow crops vertically, let's talk about some of the vegetables that can be grown up. The most popular ones include crops like: pole beans, peas, indeterminate tomatoes, and cucamelons as well as vining varieties of cucumbers, melons, and small fruited winter squash and gourds.

Not all crops climb the same way. Cucumbers use tendrils to grasp supports while pole beans twine around their trellises. Indeterminate tomatoes don't climb at all but need to be secured to their posts or trellises during the growing season to keep them upright. A little bit of research will help you match the crop to the best type of support.

There are so many types of supports and structures you can use to grow vertical vegetables. In my garden, I have wooden stakes with twine to hold all my indeterminate tomatoes. I use wire tunnels and trellises for pole beans, cucumelons, and cucumbers, but I also even use just wooden stakes and garden netting, so whatever you choose to use, just be sure it's strong enough to support the mature size of the plant.

Here are five different types of garden supports:

  1. Bamboo trellises can be made using five or six posts that are gathered together at the top to make a conical shape. These are great for crops like pole beans or cucumbers.
  2. A-frame trellises are strong supports for cucumbers, melons, gourds, and squash and can be made from lumber and covered in chicken wire, twine, or wire mesh panels.
  3. Garden arches or tunnels add so much fun to the food garden. Mine are made from two 4x8 foot wire mesh panels secured together at the top with zip ties and mounted with wooden strapping to my raised beds.
  4. Cattle panels are another great option for making tunnels and these structures are perfect for crops like pole beans, cucumelons, cucumbers, vining squash, and miniature melons. A line of wire mesh trellises runs along the entire back of my garden. These are made from four foot by eight foot sheets of wire mesh panels and provide very strong support for all types of vertical vegetables.
  5. Finally, you can use simple supports like wooden stakes hung with twine or garden netting to hold vertical crops. Or if you have a poly tunnel or greenhouse, use the horizontal trusses to hold twine where you can grow things like indeterminate tomatoes, melons, and cucumbers up.

A final tip: don't wait until your seeds are planted or seedlings transplanted to put in your structures this can damage the plants. Instead, erect your trellises, tunnels, and other types of supports before you plant. Happy Growing!