Vertically Challenged

 

10th  August

I was prompted to post about this vertical pallet garden after reading accounts of other more professional ones.  This is located in the school garden and consists of two posts driven into the ground with a wooden pallet slotted over them.  Containers are then wired to the pallet slats. Last year we tried a variety of plants, but this year the theme was a mass planting of lobelias.  What do you think?

The display was somewhat short lived. Either this is because lobelia roots don't like to be closely contained, or just possibly,  the feed of diluted worm pee was too high in nitrogen so they stopped flowering.  The lobelia in half barrels in the school playground are still flowering happily away so I venture to think the former. At any rate by the end of August they had stopped flowering. 

28 August

And just for the record here is how the vertical garden looked last year when still in development: There was a wider range of plants but none successfully overwintered, aside from the mint at the bottom.

I am not sure this experiment is worth continuing.  The watering regime was three times a week (to tie in with three fills of the bird feeders a week).  Even if it rains you need to water the lower tiers as they are in a rain shadow.  A cynic would say that this experiment has demonstrated why horizontal is the norm for gardens. 

Vertical Challenge

Another visit to the School Garden for this "vertical garden".  It consists of a supported pallet with various second use plastic tubs wired to it.  It was going to be "vertical veg" but it is a lot less challenging to find drought forgiving plants for the summer holiday if you don't restrict it to edible veg.

As an exercise in using a small space to grow in using recycled materials it has been a lot of fun.  I think it might evolve a bit over the coming year with the lessons learned. It literally is lifting higher and higher!