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Oak Harbor, Washington, United States

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Build Your Own Vertical Garden!



Perhaps one of those most frequently asked questions about the Vertical Garden is how it was built. A practical question and one I intend to answer in this post. Keep in mind that all of this can be done on a much smaller scale to accomodate whatever size VG you wish to build.



Let's start with the materials. You will need:



Hog Paneling
Chicken Wire
Shade Cloth (Typar)
Long wire?
Post to support the Wall
Cement to set the posts in


The Process:

1: Decide where you will put your Vertical Garden and flatten the ground. Be attentive to how much sun each side gets as that will determine what you plant.

2: Dig the holes and pour the cement for your wooden posts. Pound in the T-posts at the point where your sides will be held in place. It is very important that you ensure the stability of your structure. A wall full of heavy dirt could be a dangerous thing to have topple over.

3: Construct the "sides" of your wall. If you leave the ends of the hog wire with extra sticking out you can hook the chicken wire onto the hogwire making it more secure. It might be a good idea to wire the ends just for extra measure. You next step is to attach the shade cloth.

4: Wire three sides of the wall to the T-Posts leaving an opening to do your inside work.

5: Insert "cross braces" cut from the hogwire, starting at one end and working your way back toward the opening. Wire to each side of the wall. Before you put in each "cross brace" you will need to do some major wiring in between the two sides. You really can't do too much. The idea is to work your way from one end of the wall to the other. This will keep the wall from bowing as it gets heavy.

6: Wire the end onto your wall and install your irigation system. Fill with dirt. (Be sure to water BEFORE you plant so the dirt can settle.)

I hope this helps all of you aspiring Vertical Gardeners. If there are any details that you are unsure about feel free to email us or call. (aknotinthyme@verizon.net, 360-240-1216)

4 comments:

  1. Great vertical garden

    Lushe
    www.lushe.com.au

    ReplyDelete
  2. How did you fill the wall and how long did it take?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Are you asking how we filled the wall with dirt? One person stood on a ladder while another person handed buckets of dirt up to him. It took quite a while to do this due to the size of the wall. Once we watered and the dirt settled we had about 1 1/2 ft. to fill back up.

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  4. Hi! I am fascinated with your vertical garden and have a few quick questions:
    1) How much dirt did it take to fill your garden and where did you get it from?
    2) How do you amend the soil in the wall for future years?

    Thanks a bunch!
    shanbones

    ReplyDelete