Leveling Up | With Vertical Gardening

By Estelle Rodis-Brown

Re-imagine your garden space this season, from the ground up! Plant vertically with containers, fences, trellises, arbors and pergolas.

Re-imagine your garden space this season, from the ground up! Plant vertically with boxes, containers, fences, trellises and pergolas.

Take it up a notch this spring with vertical gardening. Training your flowering vines or veggies to climb up a structure rather than across the landscape can maximize your outdoor space while adding verdant privacy screens, shaded overhangs, cool filtered light and vibrant visual interest to your sitting areas.

To garden up, start by adding hanging baskets, planter boxes or planting containers to your balcony, porch, deck or patio.

According to Donna Hessel of the Emerald Necklace Garden Club and author of Northeast Ohio Boomer’s “Gardening Sweet Spots” blog, other above-ground options include:

• Window boxes

• Planters that attach to deck railings and hold potted plants

• Hooks that attach to siding or fences on which containers can be hung

• Pots placed on the steps of an opened, weathered ladder

If you have a fence on your property, train climbing plants along it to create graceful curtains of green or add shelving, garden pouches or mounted containers along that structure.

There are several ways a landscape structure can elevate your garden this season. Training crawling plants along a trellis, arbor or pergola can create the visual effect of a living wall of fragrant flowers.

A trellis is essentially a freestanding piece of open framework or lattice that can be affixed to a wall or a pergola or staked into the ground to stand on its own. A trellis provides support for plants and acts as a beautiful accent to an otherwise empty wall or as an addition to a pergola to create a living wall on one or more sides.

An arbor is normally used to define the entrance or gateway to an area. Arbors can be arched or straight at the top and are supported by a small trellis, usually about two to three feet wide, on each side. Arbors are most commonly used to frame a garden path, walkway, or entrance. Because the sides are trellises, they allow vines to grow up the sides and over the top, adding even more visual interest to the structure.

A pergola is an architectural feature that can completely transform outdoor space from a simple into a multifunctional area that blurs the line between indoors and out. A pergola can incorporate the best features of both an arbor and a trellis to create a defined outdoor seating space, be used to cover a long walkway, or be used as a shade structure for a pool deck or outdoor kitchen area.

Adding a trellis wall on one or more sides gives flowers and vines a place to climb. Once they reach the top, they will continue to grow on the stringers that make up the roof, creating a natural canopy that allows dappled sunlight to reach those enjoying its shade.

There are lots of flowering climbing vines that will show off beautiful blooms from spring to fall, whether you choose self-seeding annuals or perennials. For our growing zone, “Better Homes & Gardens” recommends:

AMERICAN WISTERIA - Fragrant and colorful, wisteria is perfect for large arbors, pergolas or porches with its white, purple or lilac flowers that can be enjoyed by early spring. (Full sun and moist, well-drained soil.)

BLACK-EYED SUSAN VINE - Fast-growing annual featuring bright yellow, orange or white flowers with dark centers. Can climb a trellis or thrive in hanging baskets where it can twist around the basket supports.

CLEMATIS - Clematis like their “heads in the sun and their feet in the shade,” so plant them in full sun but apply a thick layer of mulch around them to keep their roots cool and shaded, and they will return year after year.

CLIMBING NASTURTIUM - The tiny little seedlings of climbing nasturtiums will quickly turn into showy plants with round leaves and funnel-shaped, yellow, orange, peach or red edible blooms. (Full sun and slightly acidic, well-drained soil.)

HONEYSUCKLE – This perennial flowering vine is hardy and easy to grow. Honeysuckles are fast-growing, climbing vines that quickly cover trellises and arbors. Their nectar-filled yellow, white, orange or red flowers also attract hummingbirds. (Full sun, medium moisture, well-drained soil.)

MORNING GLORY - This is an easy-to-grow annual (from seed) with 4-6-inch blooms. The vines will climb trellises, railings, and other supports with ease. (Full sun, moist soil.)

TRUMPET VINE - A vigorous clinging vine, trumpet vine is perfect to cover up a large surface like a fence or pergola with finely divided foliage covered by funnelshaped orange, red, or yellow flowers in midsummer. (Full sun to part shade and moist, well-drained soil.)

When it comes to growing vegetables, training them along trellises or fencing results in increased yields, saving space, preventing disease and maximizing growth, due to increased exposure to the sun.

Vine crops of squash, melons and cucumbers can produce straighter, cleaner fruit via vertical gardening. Even tomato fruits will be cleaner and less likely to rot or become food for slugs if trained to grow up along a trellis rather than across the moisture-trapping soil.

“The Old Farmer’s Almanac” lists pole beans, climbing peas, sweet potatoes, vining tomatoes, and sprawling types of zucchini, cucumber, melon and squash as the ideal veggie plants that can be trained up vertical supports.

Cherry tomato: ‘Sungold’, ‘Black Cherry’, ‘Gardener’s Delight’, ‘Blondkopfchen’

Cucumber: ‘Burpee Hybrid II’, ‘County Fair 83’, ‘Dasher 11’, ‘Saladin’

Green bean: ‘Romano Italian’, ‘Meraviglia Venezia’, ‘Gold of Bacau’

Lima bean: ‘Doctor Martin’, ‘King of the Garden’

Melon: ‘Delicious 51’, ‘Tigger’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’ (musk melon); ‘White Wonder’, ‘Yellow Doll’ (watermelon)

Pea: ‘Dual’, ‘Garden Sweet’, ‘Maestro’, ‘Sugar Snap’, ‘Super Sugar Snap’

Squash: acorn, delicata, yellow summer, zucchini

Whether you want to grow flowering vines or climbing veggies this season, your vertical garden is looking up!