vertical gardening is an extremely
powerful way especially if you're in a
small space to grow a ton of food but
there are some crops that work a little
better than others so in this video i'm
going to give you three different
concepts to plant in a vertical system
so first off what do we have right here
well we have what are called green stock
gardens it's our favorite vertical tower
this is the old school one this is the
classic one it is the five-tier system
you can see there's some deeper pockets
here so there's six per on five levels
so that means you've got 30 planting
sites in about two square feet as far as
the footprint goes over here we have the
leaf which is the seven tier system so
you got 42 planting spots so we've
tested almost everything you could
possibly think of in these and here's
the first thing i think works really
well first up we have strawberries a
strawberry tower in fact is how a lot of
these strawberries are produced in
commercial systems if they're grown
hydroponically we're going to be growing
these in soil the other reason i really
like strawberries in a vertical system
is because strawberries have this
tendency to throw out what are called
runners and in a bed which we have a bed
actually right over there you kind of
have to control those runners it's going
to throw one out root throw another one
out root and it can get a little unruly
well if you plant one in a vertical
system like this let's imagine we had
this one right here
it doesn't have anywhere to run so this
one plant is just going to produce
mostly
strawberries you can clip the runners
off very easily and manage it so let's
plant this out right now
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so we just planted out about five layers
of strawberry so 30 strawberry plants
again in about four square feet of a
footprint and you might be wondering
okay well you know the sun's coming over
here how does it make sure that you get
adequate sun coverage because wouldn't
it block the light from itself being a
tower well that's where the spinner on
the bottom really comes in handy so you
can just every day just give it a quick
rotation maybe 180 degrees and you're
totally fine so this is going to be such
a productive way to grow in my
estimation one of the best fruits you
will ever eat and one of the easiest
fruits you'll grow in the garden and
that brings us to number two
beans were one of the first things ever
that i planted in a vertical system just
as an experiment because i thought if
you're growing a bush bean variety what
better way to have easy access to
actually picking the beans when you grow
beans picking them as they become
perfectly ripe is a great way to spur on
new bean growth so a few years ago at
the old homestead i actually grew about
40 or 50 bean plants in a tower and i
got pounds and pounds and pounds of
beans reliably for an entire summer so
you can direct sow
perfectly fine in a green stock garden
or vertical system like this of course
you can also transplant and what we've
discovered is having two bean plants per
is perfectly fine it doesn't disrupt the
growth of each bean plant and so if you
think about it let's just say i have 42
growing sites like i do in this green
stock leaf i can actually be growing 84
bean plants in this space it's such a
good use of vertical space especially if
you're a space constrained gardener on a
balcony or all you have is a patio or a
porch that's how i started gardening and
so something like this was absolutely
killer for me so i'll do a couple layers
of this and then we'll move on over to
the classic five tier system
beans and lettuce a fantastic
combination or a fantastic tower to run
on its own but in this one over here you
may want to consider growing things that
are a little bit more deeper rooted this
isn't my exact pick for number three as
far as my favorite plants to grow in a
vertical system but i did just want to
show it off it's one of my favorite
peppers and it's a shishito pepper so
what i'll show you here is
because you got about i don't know four
more inches of depth here you can plant
a plant that likes to be
a deep-rooted growing plant so peppers
work really well you can grow tomatoes
in fact there's a variety called tiny
tim that we grew last year it's a little
tiny determinate bushing style tomato
that when you put it out of the side of
a vertical system it kind of grows to
about this big or so and works
absolutely wonderfully so just as an
example
don't think that you can't grow
bigger plants in a vertical system you
totally can so the shishitos go in i've
actually even seen some friends of mine
grow
new potatoes so baby potatoes harvested
young in a system like this where it's a
little bit deeper so in goes these
shishitos and then i'm going to share
with you my real pick for number three
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our shishitos are in but the real secret
for me in a vertical system especially
if you love salads and you spend a lot
of money on fresh greens and fresh herbs
at the grocery store or the farmer's
market doing a salad or lettuce and herb
tower is probably your highest return on
investment thing you'll ever grow in the
garden because fresh salad ingredients
like this lettuce right here or even
rosemary's basils thyme sages oreganos
are some of the most expensive things on
a per ounce basis you'll get at a
grocery store so let me pot this up into
this system right now and i'll just show
you how much produce you can really get
so now we have a lettuce tower that you
could really customize as much as you
want the whole point of this particular
suggestion is to put your favorite leafy
greens or expensive greens and herbs
into a system like this so you can turn
it around maybe you've got basil oregano
thyme sage and rosemary in one of these
tiers and you can do a quick little
salad maybe you throw some little tiny
tim tomatoes up here or maybe these
shishitos like you like so it's really
about
which crops
really are suited to a vertical system
strawberries beans and greens works
absolutely fantastically the green stock
garden one of our favorite tools we love
it hope you like this video good luck in
the garden and keep on growing