Vertical Garden is an outdoor feature that can modernize any urban space. Maintaining a vertical garden is quite easy as compared to the garden plot. It is quite easier to maintain, but that doesn’t make it completely maintenance-free. One of the most significant benefits of growing the garden is to make the maintenance simple. Growing plants makes it easy to care for them and protect them from many common issues. One of the foremost steps is to choose a proper location for your vertical garden. Here are some of the reasons why you should maintain your vertical garden so that you don’t have to spend entire summer watering, weeding, fertilizing, and fighting disease and pests.
Table of Contents
Watering
Whether the vertical garden is growing on the patio, in the ground, or hanging on a wall, the same rules apply for watering. If you believe it or not, there is always a right and wrong way to water the plants. Some of the watering tips include watering at the base of the plant, deep watering, and sufficient drainage, mulching the garden, and using irrigation systems. Watering the plants at the bottom instead of watering over the top will help prevent fungus and mildew growth. Watering helps reduce weeds in a vertical garden, and this is because you water the plants only, not the weeds.
Training and Typing
Many kinds of veining plants cover trellis without any help from you and are quite excellent climbers. Some will try to support, but some will need to be trained to grow vertically. Some of the maintenance tips for training and tying plants include tying long branches and training vines. You need to ensure that you match them loosely as you don’t want ties to strangle or cut into the vines as they grow thicker.
Weed Control
Caring for vertical gardens growing in the ground is a whole different story. When the garden in containerized vertical structures like wall pockets and towers struggle to deal with weeds, it becomes non-existent. Controlling the plant is one of the biggest struggles that gardeners face. Managing it can become an overwhelming chore, but on the other hand, it doesn’t seem to be time-consuming if you take a few steps to prevent weeds from growing in the first place. These steps include mulching the garden, adding a weed barrier, and not watering the plants.
Fertilizing
Fertilizing is a vital part of vertical garden maintenance. Many plants perform their best when fed daily throughout the growing season. Primarily, this is important when caring for the vertical gardens while hanging containers or growing in the pots (like hanging the baskets and living walls). They depend on us to give the nutrients that they need to survive. Some tips for fertilizing this kind of vertical garden includes avoiding chemical fertilizers and using organic fertilizer.
Disease Control
Many problems develop at the beginning when we plant anything at the soil level. Vertical gardens tend to have fewer issues with soilborne diseases. Conversely, at some point, one would likely deal with some fungus or disease problems. Some tips to control disease and fungus issues in your vertical garden include regular pruning, mulching, watering correcting, disposal daily, and fresh potting soil.
Pest Control
For better or for worse furry pests and destructive bags are measured as a part of gardening. Growing plants makes controlling of these pests more comfortable in your vertical garden. Vertical gardens grow high above the ground when it comes to furry pests because they are simply out of reach. Climbing plants growing in the field can be protected easily. Some tips for controlling the pests in your vertical garden include using physical methods, attracting beneficial bugs, avoiding chemical pesticides, using organic pesticides sparingly, and targeting the pest insect.
Winterizing
There isn’t any special maintenance for vertical garden most of the time, but you will need to do it in the fall if you want to maintain your vertical garden. If you wish to extend the life of portable vertical structures like hanging planters, picture frames, and tower gardens, you must store them in a garage or shed through the winter. Moreover, if you grow perennial plants in your vertical gardens, move the containers into the unheated shed or a garage. While moving the containers, it will protect the plants, so it has a better chance to survive throughout the winter.
Harvesting
Vertically, if you grow vegetables in your vertical garden, then you can easily enjoy the bounty of your harvest. Some quick harvesting tips to add to the regular vertical garden maintenance schedule includes harvesting frequently and removing damaged fruit.
Select Seasonal Plants
Some crops blossom and are seasonable once a year; others can be resilient all year round. One needs to make sure that they buy seeds and plants based on the season so that they will grow them in the vertical garden.
Use Recyclables
Recycled household items can be great containers and pots for your plants. You can create a hanging garden using plastic bottles or even use a two-liter bottle and cut it in half to make hot pots.
Therefore, if you care for your vertical garden, you will look for creative objects to maintain it. By following vertical garden maintenance tips, you won’t have to waste your summer lugging watering cans, fighting pests and disease, or pulling pesky weeds. If you are managing your plants in the container, then you have better control over the plant’s root environment. The risk of disease is quite smaller, even if the garden is outdoors. You need to remember that if you’re growing vegetables, the benefit may equalize by the need for frequent fertilizing. Taking advantage of such a brilliant mode of gardening requires diligence to horizontal gardening on the ground, but this can be with few benefits.
Conclusion
Vertical gardening is the most effective tool to create a healthy microclimate that increases the oxygen level. Some vertical structures like arches, gazebos, pergolas, and arbors help generate an ambiance of the outdoor garden. A vertical garden structure helps focus the eye on a mystery. It also gives you a sense of depth and height if you have a small space for your garden. In other words, a vertical garden gives you a good vibe and increases the productivity of maintaining the plants. Gardening vertically makes watering, fertilizing, harvesting, and pruning more convenient and saves the person who looks after it from a bad posture and backache from constant bending. Several criteria have been discussed above to explain diverse ways to maintain your vertical garden. A vertical garden has many opportunities and potentials visible, not only as an active contribution to nature but also plays an important role in promoting health.
Tags: Gardening vertically, maintenance-free, Vertical Garden, Watering
