I'm looking to grow a few herbs and vegetables on my balcony, both to consume and to make the place look a bit better.
Should I go to the work of building a vertical garden or am I better off with just a small couple of grow beds?
Any tips or experiences you'd like to share?
>>981032
see
>>>/out/743345
I found that with vertical growing you needed to compartmentalize the levels individually. You can't allow water to flow from the top to the bottom. Otherwise, it becomes very dry at the top and always soaking wet at the bottom. Keep the vertical distance of the soil to about 2.5-3 feet or less.
>>981032
This
>>981032
Before you go making too many beds on your balcony, you gotta understand that they are built to undergo a certain load, dirt, water, that shit is a heavy perminet load so you don't want to build anything that's too big, spreading it out so that some is on the wall in a vertical garden and having a few small planters on the balcony itself, just don't go overboard and have a full vegetable garden spread out over your entire balcony
My wife bought a "shoe organizer" at Walmart for strawberries.
>>981032
Rain gutters. Works great. Strawberries herbs and lettuces grow great in them. Easy to install and maintain. For vertical growing it doesnt get better then rain gutters.
>>982642
please consider the weight of dirt plants and water
>>981032
I'm starting off with individual pots on a balcony shelf and a book on growing from kitchen scraps.
After I get better at it I'm going to try large horizontals. Because it's an apartment, I will probably naturally get into a large vertical garden once I have started accruing too much potting soil and such, just to get it out of the way.
TLDR I'm starting with one, then two or three, and then getting into larger batches so that I can learn first.
Start off small. There are a lot of logistic considerations. Before you invest a lot of time and money into a project start with concept art and plans and as small as is feasible.
You'd be impressed at how much you can grow with a very efficient setup.
>>983790
Used them as window boxes and vertical gardens in every house I've ever lived in without a problem. Cheap and quick to install. Easily supports the required dirt plants and water. Realistically unless your in a very old sketchy building all you should have to do is mount securely and weight really shouldnt be too much of an issue. I usually cut gutters to fit the studs in the wall and mount to the studs.
