Project 6: Vertical Growing

Why would you want to do this? Why not make the most of the space you have to grow food in?

Why wouldn’t you want to do this? You don’t want to grow plants, or you don’t have a place to hang heavy planters.

Is there an easier way? There are some versions of “stackable” planters available, but I haven’t seen any others that hang like this.

Skills needed: Basic construction skills.

Learn more about it: I haven’t found many resources for similar projects; most books in the “vertical gardening” category deal with trellising and supports to attach trailing plant growth to. If you look up “vertical farming,” you’ll find information that’s closer to what I’m thinking about, but on a much larger scale.

If you consider how many more humans can live in a given area of square footage when residences are built skyward, doesn’t it make sense to apply the same concept to growing plants?

If you think about it, we stack a lot of things: books, dishes, apartments, boxes, cars, clothes. Stacking is one of the more effective ways of using space efficiently. We don’t often think of stacking plants, but if humans can live in stacked houses, why can’t plants? We live in three dimensions, but conventional gardening seems to deal in only two dimensions, stuck in the ground.

I’m not sure if the macramé craze of the 1970s is what spawned hanging planters, but that ecru-colored weaving with funky wooden beads seemed made to showcase trailing plants (other than belts, what else could it be used for?). Hanging planters turned unoccupied air space into usable garden areas.

Hanging planters have become ubiquitous, and they provide a fun and easy way to decorate otherwise not-plant-friendly areas. But what about using them for growing food? A few years ago, a friend grew cherry tomatoes in a hanging pot on her deck, and she was surprised by how many people remarked on “such a clever idea!” Since then, the upside-down tomato planter, which uses gravity for watering, debuted, cementing the idea of growing a food crop from a hanging position.

Installing thin light fixtures above the tiers of hanging planters improves the plants’ growth. You can turn any bookshelf into a series of plant shelves by adding inexpensive shop-light fixtures with grow bulbs. When you use shelf space for gardening, you multiply your growing area without changing your existing square footage.

As an example, I have a small 8-foot-by-10-foot greenhouse with 35 square feet of table space and a 12-square-foot inground bed. Over the inground bed, I built a fold-down counter (9 square feet) and four shelves (6 square feet each), and I put a 10-foot-long 6-inch shelf above my tables. By stacking growing areas in the open vertical space, I netted an additional 38 square feet, effectively doubling the usable space but retaining the same footprint.

But here’s even more! We had old recycle bins that hooked on an upright aluminum wheeled cart for transport to the curb. I drilled holes in the bottoms of the bins, filled them with a light soil mix, and planted them with early carrots in the greenhouse. In about 2 square feet of floor space, the cart served as a stand for two carrot planters and a way to transport them outside when the weather got nice.

My favorite vertical planter is described in the following project. I’ve made several different versions of it, all of which I have used in my greenhouse.

This planter is intended to hang in an outside area with good sun exposure, although it is possible to hang it indoors. The most important factor is that whatever you hang it from must be securely mounted into the ceiling or roof and able to support the planter’s weight—with its multiple levels, this planter is very heavy when full of soil, even more so when wet. The plants start out as seeds, but they also add weight as they grow larger.

Materials:

•Three plastic gutters, as deep as possible, cut into 2- or 3-foot lengths (see if you can salvage these)

•Six gutter ends that fit on the gutters

•Four 3/16-inch hook-and-eye turnbuckles

•Two 3/16-inch-by-5/8-inch eyehooks with

•washers and nuts

•Four 3/16-inch strong washers for turnbuckle diameter

•Six hooks

•Drill, with 3/16-inch or 1/4-inch bit

•Strong utility chain or weight-bearing cord

•Potting soil

•Seeds

Step 1: Secure the gutter ends to the individual gutter pieces. You don’t have to caulk or seal them if they fit snugly enough; most gutter caps are designed to hold water inside. If you’re not sure, fill the gutter up with water to see if it leaks with the caps on.

Step 2: Turn two of the three gutter pieces upside down and drill a line of holes down the length of the midline, about 1 inch apart. Be sure that there are holes at the 8-inch and 16-inch marks if using 2-foot gutter segments or at the 12-inch and 24-inch marks if using 3-foot pieces. In the bottom of the third piece, drill only two holes, either at the 8- and 16-inch marks (for a 2-foot segment) or the 12- and 24-inch marks (for a 3-foot segment), centered on the width. (Or, if you plan to hang the planter in an area that can get wet, drill all three gutters with a full line of holes.)

Step 3: Attach the turnbuckles through the 8-inch/16-inch or 12-inch/24-inch holes in the two multiple-drilled pieces. Put the eye side through the inside of the gutter with a washer on the outside bottom. Screw the center piece of the turnbuckle to the protruding threads.

Step 4: Put the two eyehooks through the gutter piece with two holes, again with the eyes inside and the washers bolted to the outside between the gutter and the nut.

Step 5: Using the chain or cord, connect the eyehooks inside the gutters to an even length of chain for each side of the gutter. Make sure that the height between each gutter is sufficient for what you are going to plant and is enough so that the gutters don’t shade one another; about 12 to 15 inches should be fine. Connect the hook beneath the gutter length to a piece of chain, and use an S hook to connect it to the lower eyehook. Do this again for the final gutter piece, which should be the undrilled piece with only eyehooks in it.

Step 6: Hang the whole apparatus from the ceiling or roof. Make sure that all of the gutters are level.

Step 7: Fill each of the gutters with soil, tamping down gently.

Step 8: Plant your seeds or starts.

You can place the gutters as close together or as far apart as you want, as long as they hang level.

Additional Advice

•This planter is a good size for shallow-rooted plants and is easy to use for succession planting, picking from one level while the other two grow.

•Try different varieties of lettuce or other greens that grow quickly and stay relatively small. You can harvest most greens when they are small—they are very sweet and tender delicacies—or you can harvest every other head at that time, enjoying some baby greens while making room for the others to continue growing.

•Water the top level of the planter heavily for extra outflow to the lower tiers (this will work if you have used proper potting soil and drilled holes as per the instructions) or just water each level individually. If you didn’t drill a line of holes all the way across the lowest gutter, be careful that the lowest level doesn’t get too wet because it has no drainage.

•Look around your house for other vessels that can hold soil to make variations on this planter and expand your options for small-scale vertical gardening.