Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space

Two raised beds 8 ft x 4 ft x 3 ft and so many flowers and veggies. Climbing roses, shrub roses, perennials galore, tomato plants ... absolutely astounding how these small spaces are filled with healthy productive plants. This summer I shall add 2 more raised beds for bulbs, fingerling potatoes, carrots, interspersed with leafy vegetables and lettuce. More heirloom climbing roses, too. You should see my smile that stretches clear to my ears ;-)

LOVE THIS!!!!! I am combining several ideas in gardening since I have very limited sunlight due to trees. I am even growing a vertical garden in an old cooler on my patio. I can pull it up close to the house if bad weather is coming or out of the way if bbq-ing. It seems easier to keep the animals off, is a little better to see what is growing, can watch for bugs better, seems like it will be easier to harvest and save my back from bending over so far. I have even incorporated an old metal box springs off my grandmothers bed. I place next to the fence and used t-post and straps to hold upright. On the top I planted flowers in pots. I have tied my beans and squash with different colored yarn to keep them growing in there own spot and have stick pinwheels in the sides and shny things in the trees close by. This does seem to be helping with the birds. I didn't mind at first but then the birds started pecking at the produce. Lots of great Ideas!!!!!

This is a good, interesting resource. However, don't expect a riveting read. It is just a Puritan-ethical serious as you might think. The illustrations tend to look a little ramshackle (i.e. the neighbors would b!tch), but the principles are great and could easily be used in dressier, more neighbor-friendly ways. There are some pretty unsubtle pitches for the author's own hardscape products, which was a little bit offputting, but on the whole this is a good idea book. After all, no one is ever going to write a book about how best to use my specific garden in my particular neighborhood! I would say this is a better book for promoting thoughts about vertical gardening than for adoptng as verbatim recommendations, but after all, creativity is the fun part of gardening! I do feel that I need to say that if anyone is considering purchasing it specifically for information about the potato-tomato plant as I did, it isn't the book you want; the idea here is growing one up and one down to support each other, not to grow a fantastically useful hybrid.

This book has given me some great ideas for locating growing areas that will be more versatile. I don’t have much room to grow things so this has helped me adapt to the areas I have.

I recommend this book for everyone! Whether you only have space for containers on a patio, a 12 inch space against a south, east, or west wall, or a garden plot with rows and rows, you can benefit from the information in this book. Did you know that you can grow 10 times more green beans when growing a pole snap bean than when growing a bush bean? I grew my first garden this past summer at my new residence, but the garden space wasn't enough for what I have plans to grow. My hubby said we can't make a bigger plot, so I am thrilled while reading this book, realizing that many of my space problems can be easily solved with a little effort and cost. Cost depends on our choices of the materials that we use and I intend to grow bamboo for many of my structures. The author explains various types of bamboo that he likes for best appearance. Other added benefits are the saving of water while growing a lot more of whatever you want to grow, less work of weeding, no more back breaking work picking green beans and such low to the ground, easier pest control, better flavor of produce...and so much more. You can grow in an 8 square foot vertical space what you would normally grow in a 24 square foot horizontal space. My husband says that food taste better when vertical growing and Derek Fell explains that the plants contain more Chlorophyll, which improves the taste of the plants. He also shares how to grow tomatoes on top of the ground and potatoes directly underneath in the tomato root system. This book contains information of how to use various items to build your structures to grow up and not out, which plants produce an abundance supply, and tidbits of wisdom from years of experience and experimentation are sprinkled throughout. My mother gave me an advertisment that she received concerning this book and I am so glad that she did! It's going to prove invaluable to me!

I actually purchased this book after taking it out at my public library. If you want to do vertical gardening this is a good book to consider. I have plenty of space to build a garden, in fact three different places to plant so that I can rotate once a year to rest my soil and build up as needed. All gardening places about 1/4 acre each. Still I wanted to condense my working area because I am getting older and my energy and strength is not what it use to be. The book seems to be well organized an well written and covers both blooms and vegetables. I am anxious to try some of his ideas out to make my gardening easier and to still get the produce that I need to cover my winter needs with my root celler, fermenting and canning that I do in the harvest season.

Mr. Fell's book is pretty comprehensive for a beginning gardener. He covers most of my questions regarding the "How", if not the "Why". I'm adequate at jackleg carpentry and plumbing - at least enough to figure out how to make most of the stuff he describes. My problem is that sometimes he seems to confuse things due to inadequate proof-reading. In addition, his home stomping grounds (New England and Florida) leave a vacuum in the information for anyone living in "Fly Over Country" - which is perhaps 2/3's of the continental United States. My other complaint has more to do with the medium than Mr. Fell, per se. Kindle is quite limited in providing a means to emphasize words, chapter headings, etc. Mr. Fell chose to use the "Lighter Ink" method. Bad choice. The print does not appear against a white background, but rather more of a medium gray background. "Light Ink" tends to disappear due to lack of contrast. This is especially true for the information associated with his photos and drawings - much of which becomes illegible. He would be better off to use "Dark Ink" and provide no emphasis at all - at least the basic information would be available without the need to "study" the groups of letters for some time to identify them.

I bought this book to use with my square food gardening book. It is filled with great tips, and ideas for how to raise garden crops using the vertical method. It is a different way to garden if you have never done this before, but it really works. If you don't have much room and you want to get the best bang for your buck, this book is one you should have. I highly recommend it.

This an excellent work which covers all the necessary basics on vertical gardening even though it is biased toward American readers .However , for those in British climates , it is still a very usable book and simple to understand . I would recommend it to all interested in the art of vertical gardening .

I had this out of the library so long I decided to buy my own copy. We live in the city under shade trees and our soil is poor. As a result we patio garden in containers. We grow a lot of our vegetable vertical - spaghetti squash, pole beans, zucchini, cucumbers, etc. Derek's book is great at giving ideas for vertical structures we can use. The photo section of the book is to die for. It inspired us to replace our fence with a good sturdy fence when it needed to be replaced last summer. I plan to hang baskets from it and grow plants up the fence. All in all a very inspiring and practical book. Thank you Derek Fell.

great book, gave plenty of new ideas, good insights and knowledge, would recommend

Worth buying. Very helpful.

This books is written by a local man to us here in the North West of England. He has made his fame and a wonderful farm for himself and his family "over the pond" in the USA. I'm from Australia so I understand what it takes to leave your homeland and flourish elsewhere for more than a decade. I am about half way through and it's been OK, actually it's been good. There were a couple of sections I did not bother reading as I am not into the floral side of gardening unless it helps "me vege". Some of the info seemed to be repeated but there is enough flow of new, quality information in each chapter. There is enough depth in what is offered for me to give it 4 stars even before I finish it. If some of the images had been better and bit clearer, I would have gone to 5 stars. There is buckets loads of passion and enthusiasm offered to all levels of gardeners ;) ... with some really very easily do-able ideas for anyone who wants save their backs and work/garden in raised beds and / or trellised gardens. Whilst I have been gardening for over 40 years, I still like to be reminded of the basics again. I can say that this book has a bit for the newby and also some good, new concepts and ideas for someone who has been doing it for a while. I would and have recommended this book to others to read already. If your back has issues, garden vertically!! I think there is enough variety in here for the vegetable grower and floral growers too. Thanks Derek for taking the time to write this. It's been a good read so far and worth the time invested in reading it too. Would someone please turn winter off here in the UK. It is Mid May 2013 and it snowed for a short minute here in Manchester today... :(