Best Edible Plants for your Vertical Garden
Vertical gardening is turning out to be one of the best and fun way wherein one can add plants to the balcony, patio or even if there is a small space in their house. There is no need for building up an elaborate structure. All you need is just some creative instinct and the right kind of materials to get your vertical garden in place. Talking in simpler terms, vertical gardening is said to be gardening or landscaping that is basically carried out with plants that are either positioned above the ground level or they are kept in such a way wherein they can grow in the upward direction.
So instead of just one or two point placed on the ground you can have several of them positioned on a pallet. For small spaces, vertical gardening or living green walls is turning out to be one of the best options. The main thing is to choose the right kind of plant, such as flowering plants, herbs, edible plants and so on.
The quality of soil that is used in the vertical garden is of real importance and the reason is since there is not as much as it would have normally been. Hence especially for the edible garden it becomes important to get the best of the soil when you start it off and from time to time sprinkle high quality organic compost to it so that the soil food is kept on.
Also there is an advantage of vertical gardens and one of them being that the plants can grow upwards. Ensure to have proper water arrangement carried out for edible plants, it can be through the normal watering system or the drip irrigation method which can be installed. Nutrients for edible plant growth is very important. You can add in some compost teas or worm juice in the soil so as to replace the nutrients in it time and again.
Have you come across the term called as the edible plants? Seems to be quite a fancy name for categorizing plants which is said to include certain fruits and herbs that can turn out to be tasty when consumed either raw or can be cooked. Let us talk about the best edible plants which can be grown in the vertical gardens. One thing everyone should be aware about if they are going in for edible plants is that they would need to grow well in the climate present in your area.
One should be preparing the suitable soil along with the proper amount of nutrients and moisture without which it would be difficult for the edible plants to survive. Another important thing when it comes to edible plants is shade. There are certain edible plants that would need full shade to grow, some may need just partial or no shade at all when it comes to growing. Once you are aware and have taken a note of all the items which are must for the edible plants then you can start off with the process of building up your vertical garden with edible plants.
- Below are few of the edible plants for your Vertical Garden that can be planted in complete shade as well . This is especially for those vertical gardens which have shady every time throughout the day. These are mostly those plants that would not be requiring too much of sunlight and they would need to be a bit wet than the rest of the others. You can plant, violets, Thai basil, sorrel, mints such as chocolate or Moroccan, watercress and lemon balm.
- Edible plants such as, chives, lettuce, radish, basil, rocket, dwarf cabbage and parsley would need just part shade and a bit of sunlight to grow well.
- When we talk about vertical garden and a complete sunlight throughout the day then it may tend to get trickier and the reason for the same is because they may tend to dry out too soon. Hence one of the option that can be carried out is to go in for those plants that would grow quickly. Few of the examples of such plant would include, Aloe Vera, thyme, cherry tomatoes, purslane, rocket, Malabar spinach, or silverbeet.
Below are some of the best edible plants that can be grown in the vertical garden:
- Mint: There are a lot of people who tend to assume that if they have a small space in the house but it is getting complete shade then it won’t be able to grow anything. But mint of any kind or type can be grown in a shade environment. All you would need to ensure is that the soil is pretty much damp as well as nice for the plant to grow well.
- Parsley: Along with basil, parsley is considered to be a soft herb that can grow well in partly shaded region or even in the dappled light.
- Strawberries: Strawberries can do very well in case of an up-down balcony garden. However, it would need ample amount of soil and proper sunlight then it is surely going to enjoy that vertical place without making much issues and since they have those hanging fruits then it would make it pretty much easy to pick them up.
- Lettuce: The lettuce is known to be having shallow roots thereby making them a perfect option for vertical gardens. In case if the area where you are looking to place the vertical garden is partially shaded then lettuce is surely going to thrive well.
- Radish: There are certain root veggies that can turn out to grow pretty well in the vertical garden structure. However, you would need to ensure that the depth of the root should be at least 20 to 30cm. You can try out the baby varieties of the radish. Similarly, you can also have baby beet, or baby carrots.
- Cherry tomatoes: These are little red balls that enjoy complete sunlight for hours. They also grow very fast and mostly trellised. You can also allow them to tumble downwards in the vertical garden structure.
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