9 Awesome Benefits Of Vertical Gardening In Urban Spaces

Discover the Benefits of Vertical Gardening in Small Spaces

I’ve been gardening for around ten years now. I initially started growing tomatoes on the indoor windowsill of my first floor flat, in pots with thin bamboo canes and quickly discovered the many benefits of vertical gardening.

When I first tasted the small tomatoes I’d grown, I was delighted by the wonderfully intense flavour, so I got hooked on growing stuff indoors. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was my first foray into vertical gardening and I haven’t looked back since!

There are many benefits of vertical gardening, including space saving benefits, visual appeal, improved plant health, increased yield, environmental and economic advantages – and the ability to grow non-traditional plants.

In this blog, I’m going to talk you through what vertical gardening is, explain how to get started, take a closer look at the benefits – as well as share how my experience enriched my gardening life, allowing me to grow more crops in limited spaces.

All set to discover the top nine benefits of vertical gardening? Let’s go!

Table of Contents

What is Vertical Gardening?

Let’s start with the basics: what is vertical gardening? To summarise: vertical gardening is growing things upwards, to maximise your growing space. 

Certainly, getting a tomato crop from a space as small as a windowsill is excellent for those living in flats and apartments and the space issue is one of the most crucial benefits of vertical gardening. I mean, otherwise how could I have grown something in any quantity on a windowsill?

Since then, I’ve moved several times into places that had gardens of various sizes. Even in my latest move, – my new garden isn’t huge – overall I have a space about a tenth of the size of a traditional allotment, so it makes sense to look into ways of maximising the space to grow a reasonable amount of crops.

So far, I’ve been experimenting with interplanting, companion planting, successive sowings, winter sowing, perennial veg, etc and I’ve leveraged the benefits of vertical gardening to optimise growing room and achieve my gardening ‘goals’.

Getting Started with Vertical Gardening

When it comes to vertical gardening, everyone has their own method – so I can only tell you how I go about things. Let’s examine some of the key factors to keep in mind.

Consider your Space

First of all, when you’re getting started, it’s important to assess your space. For example, when I first moved into my current home, it was all shingle on weed matting, with overgrown bushes, brambles and ivy. The ivy had stems as thick as my arm, that’s how overgrown it was!

Well, I lifted almost all that, leaving four bramble stems at the far end of the garden, on the shady side of a north-facing fence. In order to support them, I put in cheap garden arches alongside that fence, intending to follow the advice to grow the stems in one direction one year and the opposite direction the next year, to make cutting back each year easier.

Everyone’s in a different situation, the trick is to work with what you’ve got and be prepared before you start your vertical garden.

Choose your Crops

Once I’ve assessed my space, I choose my favoured vegetables of the season. Because I’m a fan of winter squash, I tend put together a cage-type structure, using bamboo poles wired together to support my winter squash. My favourite squash is tromboncino, which can grow four to five feet long, so it really needs the vertical room to hang down from the vine.

(Please note that this kind of structure can support all sorts of crops, such as courgettes or runner beans, or whatever your top choice happens to be).

Stabilise your Structure

Remember the arches I mentioned earlier? Well, I tend to use two of those arches to wire to my bamboo cages for stability, to support growing beans upwards. I have tried every configuration of bamboo wigwams, tents, etc and utterly failed to get stable structures, that will stand up to the 40 mph winds I get in my area.

Luckily, my bamboo cages have the main struts upwards wired to pallet cubes, so they really are stable. As I discussed in a previous article about gardening on a budget, these pallet cubes were free from local builders working in the area.

They even brought them right to my house for me, so I didn’t have to heft them about myself! I highly recommend getting hold of some pallet cubes if you can, because they are so useful.

9 Benefits of Vertical Gardening

Now I’ve discussed getting started and some of my personal tips, let’s delve deeper into some of the key benefits of vertical gardening. Hopefully, by the end of this article, you will have a better understanding of what vertical gardening is and feel optimistic you can succeed!

1. Space Saving Benefits

First of all, vertical gardening saves you a lot of space. This is probably the main reason so many people are keen to garden vertically. The space factor makes vertical gardening ideal for small gardens, balconies, patios, and even indoor areas.

You can also use walls, fences, and other vertical structures to create a lush garden without taking up valuable ground room, as well as grow plants in areas that are not suitable for traditional gardening. For example, I can grow herbs and vegetables on a sunny wall or fence that would otherwise be unused space.

2. Visual Appeal

In addition to saving space, vertical gardening can also be highly visually appealing. By using a variety of plants and structures, you can create a stunning vertical garden that adds a certain je ne sais quoi to your outdoor space. Plus, vertical gardens can be designed to fit any style or aesthetic, from modern to rustic, or whatever your preference may be.

3. Improved Plant Health

Vertical gardening can lead to improved plant health in a number of ways. Here are some of the benefits:

• Better air circulation: vertical gardens can provide better air circulation around the plants. This can help to reduce the risk of certain fungal diseases that thrive in warm, humid conditions.
• Less soil-borne disease: growing plants vertically can also help to reduce the risk of soil-borne diseases. This is because the plants are not in direct contact with the soil, which can harbour pathogens that cause disease.
• Easier access to sunlight: vertical gardens can also provide easier access to sunlight. This is because the plants can be arranged to receive optimal amounts of light, regardless of the orientation of the garden.
• Reduced pest damage: vertical gardens can also reduce the risk of pest damage. By growing plants vertically, you can keep them out of reach of certain pests, such as insects and rodents.

4. Increased Yield

Vertical gardening is also a great way to maximise yield in a limited space. By growing plants vertically, you can pack more plants into a smaller area, thereby increasing your harvest. This is especially beneficial for those who want to grow their own produce, but have limited space.

You can also grow a greater variety of plants than you would be able to in a traditional garden. For example, you could grow lettuce, herbs, and strawberries all in the same area.

5. Grow Non-Traditional Plants

Another benefit of vertical gardening is that it allows you to grow plants that would not do well in traditional gardens.

For example, plants that require a lot of support, such as tomatoes or beans, can be grown vertically using trellises or other support structures.

This year, I experimented with growing tall sunflowers, nasturtiums, along with French beans, squash and tomatoes as my upward veg. You’ll notice that all these vegetables are tall, but that’s because I had no expectations of the sunflowers growing, as I’ve been singularly unsuccessful with them in the past.

Still, one of the benefits of vertical gardening is that it increases my area for experimentation which is one of the joys of gardening!

6. Environmental Impact

Vertical gardening also has a significant positive impact on the environment such as:

• Reduces carbon footprint: vertical gardens can help to reduce the carbon footprint of cities by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Plants use carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, which means that they can help to reduce the levels of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.
• Improves air quality: vertical gardens can also help to improve air quality by filtering out pollutants and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. This can be especially important in urban areas where air pollution tends to be a major problem.
• Reduces urban heat island effect: growing upwards can also help to reduce the urban heat island effect, which is when urban areas are significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas due to human activities. This is because plants absorb heat from the sun and release water vapour through transpiration, which can help to cool the surrounding air.
• Reduces stormwater runoff: You can reduce stormwater runoff with a vertical garden because they can absorb rainwater, preventing it from flowing into storm drains, helping to reduce the risk of flooding and erosion, as well as improve water quality by filtering out pollutants.

7. Aesthetic Appeal

One of the most significant benefits of vertical gardening is its aesthetic appeal. It adds dimension to your garden, no matter the size of your outdoor area.

But remember that if you want to take visuals seriously, you will need to plan out your plant colours in advance. Also, trellises and living walls are nice ways to add a pretty touch to your garden area, you’ll have visitors green with envy!

8. Therapeutic Benefits

Another significant benefit of vertical gardening is stress reduction.

You don’t have to be a genius to work out that spending time in green spaces can help reduce stress levels and improve overall mood. Vertical gardens can be particularly helpful in urban areas where access to greenery may be limited.

Gardening is also a low-impact form of exercise that can help improve flexibility, strength, and endurance.

It can help lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of obesity and other chronic diseases. Not everyone loves exercise, so gardening can offer a natural way to burn calories and get moving around while doing something you love.

9. Economic Advantages

Many of you reading this will be looking to become more self-sufficient in order to save money during an era when life is becoming increasingly expensive. Vertical gardening has several economic benefits that can help your bank account such as:

• Lower water consumption: vertical gardens use less water than traditional gardens because the water is delivered directly to the roots of the plants. This reduces water loss due to evaporation and runoff, making vertical gardening a more efficient use of water resources.
• Reduced investment and maintenance costs: they also require less soil and fertiliser than traditional gardens. This can reduce your initial investment costs and ongoing maintenance expenses, making vertical gardening a more cost-effective option in the long run.
• Grow your own food: growing your own vegetables and fruit can help save you money. It takes practice and time to replace your weekly shop with home-grown crops, but vertical gardening can assist in getting you there more quickly because it optimises crucial space you don’t have on the ground. Vertical gardening also allows you to grow your own organic produce, which is often more expensive in local markets.

Benefits of Vertical Gardening: Final Thoughts

As a massive fan of vertical gardening, I can safely say it’s an excellent solution for maximising the full potential of your outdoor space and I very much hope this article has demonstrated what is truly possible for you to achieve.

For those of you interested in self-sufficiency, it’s a great way to grow your own food, even if you have limited space, such as a balcony, small yard, or even a simple windowsill.

By making the most of vertical gardening techniques, you can increase the amount of space you have available and improve your yield,

As discussed, one of the primary advantages of vertical gardening is its space-saving nature. It’s ideal for those who live in urban areas or have limited room outside, because you can grow plants in a small area, which makes it easier to manage and maintain.

Along with additional benefits such as economic and environmental factors, it’s no wonder that vertical gardening is becoming increasingly popular with urban gardeners!