The topic of vertical landscaping several years ago interested me seriously. Although I did not feel the land deficit on my 24 hundredths, the very idea of placing garden and garden crops not only in a horizontal, but also in a vertical plane seemed curious and practical. And this time I want to share with you the ideas of the arrangement of vertical beds in a summer house found in various sources and I propose to exchange opinions about their pluses and minuses. The beds can be placed not only in the horizontal, but also in the vertical plane of which and how the vertical tortoil is made, probably, it is still worth a brief review of the methods of constructing vertical beds. There are a lot of them, and every gardener can invent something his own. The most popular, perhaps, are all kinds of “ebrids” and designs resembling a children’s pyramid. For their creation, old car tires of different diameters, ordinary boards, metal stripes, and finished boxes, and a border tape – who have something is at hand, are used. A step-by-step vertical bed can be made among summer residents of various materials, one-sided vertical bed can be made by placing it near the wall, and it can be bilateral. Often, such structures are used to plant strawberries, but they are suitable for greens, for example. The stepped bed can be placed on the wall or fence for the same purpose, the old barrels or pipes of large diameter are used, having previously drilled holes in them in a circle, as well as voluminous bags of dense black polyethylene. In the center of such a bed, a device for watering planted plants will certainly have. Here, for example, is one of the schemes that demonstrate the design of the vertical bed-cylinder: by the way, polyethylene packages can be used even more original-for example, having fixed them on an unsightly fence from a metal mesh and planting the plants into the formed “pockets”. And if you want to plant something more serious, made of black spanbond, tarpaulin, burlap or any other suitable material, vertical “pockets” that are hung on a wall or fence. “Pockets” beds can decorate the wall or fence about this method of landing in detail in the article “Pocket Flower” – the vertical bed is equipped according to the same principle. And let the places on such “mini-sides” be enough for salads and greenery, but an unusual phytosten will decorate the country landscape for sure. Like the original designs that craftsmen build from drainpipes and gutters: original mini-britches can be built from drainpipes and gutters and on a deaf fence you can grow vegetables in suspended boxes or … plastic bottles. Plastic bottles-a popular material for vertical mini-groats, excellent compact vertical beds are obtained from old pallets, which are painted (or simply processed with a protective composition so that the wood does not rot), sewn up with a cloth (burlap, non-woven covering material, any dense fabric do not pour out) so that the ground is not spilled out, the soil is filled and planted. Such a bed can be placed on the terrace and even on the loggia. Compact vertical beds are obtained from the pallet strictly speaking, most types of vertical beds are nothing more than containers of all kinds of structures. So, have the same advantages and disadvantages. Which? The pluses of vertical beds
- Decorative
A neatly made vertical design with plants is always attractive, perfectly decorates the site, becomes its “highlight”. And the possibilities for design, as examples show, there is a limitless set.
- Saving space
If there are few lands, but I want to plant a lot, vertical beds are very helped out – because the area is used at the same time, and the design itself can be placed anywhere: along the walls of the house, shed or summer kitchen, at the fence or on the fence, and so on.
- Minimum soil processing
In fact, there is nothing to dig here, there is simply no place for weeds; It remains only to build a bed and plant plants.
- Mobility
Many designs easily move; There are modular options that can be combined to your liking, complemented and rebuilt. Vertical beds are the same containers. With all their pros and cons of the minuses of vertical beds
- Moisture lack
Like any containers, vertical beds require frequent watering. The soil here dry out much faster than in an ordinary garden, and in the heat the plants can suffer much more.
- Limited soil volume
Most of the structures of vertical beds are quite small containers. Therefore, they are not suitable for all species of plants, but additional nutrition will be required.
- Freezing of the soil in winter
It is problematic to grow perennial cultures on such beds: in the harsh winter, the frost will destroy the root system, because the soil will freeze through. This must be taken into account when choosing the design of the beds, for example, for strawberries. The disadvantages of vertical beds can be reduced, but completely getting rid of them – is it hardly possible to get rid of the minuses or, at least, reduce their value? There is no completely rid of it, because their cause is the design features. Reduce – yes, it is quite real. So, to reduce moisture deficiency will help:
- Hydrogel: a special polymer, which is added to the soil when planting. He is able to accumulate moisture (the granules swell), and then the roots of plants take water from them as necessary;
- drip irrigation systems: expensive, but effective, and expenses can be reduced if you collect everything with your own hands instead of buying a finished system.
In our catalog, where the goods of large garden online stores are presented, you will find a wide range of various watering devices that will make care of beds and flower beds is much easier. Choose equipment for watering. Limited soil volumes will not be a problem if greens or vegetable crops that are not particularly demanding on nutrition, with a compact root system, are grown in such beds. But they still have to feed them more often than their brothers growing in a traditional garden. Winter chores will not affect you if you intend to grow annual vegetables and greens on vertical beds. For strawberries and perennial spicy herbs, low structures with a large volume of soil (in the form of a floor or pyramids) are suitable, although they can suffer in small -snow winters. Not every culture will be comfortable on such beds frankly, I pretty doubt that in such structures you can grow, for example, cabbage or tomatoes, although they are sometimes demonstrated in photographs – just look at least at the photo above. Whoever plants cabbage knows how many water and nutrition, which simply have nowhere to get in a tiny suspended container. I’m not sure that strawberries will feel good in such beds (excluding, unless, pyramids with sufficient soil volume and a well -thought -out watering system). What do you think about this? Those who have the experience of building vertical beds and growing vegetables in them – share your impressions! In preparing the publication, photos from the Pinterest.ru website are also used to read:
- Ideas for container gardens and gardens in a small site
- Tomato as a decorative plant, or the tricks of container growing tomatoes
- Vertical bed – the tricks of life !!!
- 10 ideas of vertical beds
- Where and how to equip a container garden
