Yes, Vertical Gardens Save Space. No, They're Not Low-Effort

While the first thing to consider before planting a vegetable garden is how much produce your household needs, the second is whether you have enough space to accommodate the plants. For cooks with big dreams but small backyards, vertical gardens can be a godsend, but growing plants this way also presents unique challenges — what you save in space, you might have to pay back in effort.

Vertical gardens can use many tools to hang plants or grow them up and down, from dangling pots to trellises, shelves, and even "living wall" installments covered in greenery. These help you create a customizable, gorgeous garden that barely takes up more space than the fences, walls, and doors you use as foundations. However, this kind of setup also requires frequent maintenance and repairs, plus handy skills to assemble and install it correctly. Shelves have to be cleaned, metal trellises and climbing frames should be inspected for rust, and you need to keep hanging apparatuses strong and sturdy to ensure that your plants don't fall. Structures also need to be strengthened if you add more plants (i.e. more weight) to them.

Generally speaking, horizontal gardens are better for heavy crops that can use more support since you don't have to work against gravity. Additionally, the increased surface area of a vertical garden exposes plants to more wind, sunlight, and other weather, so they require heavier, more frequent watering than traditional soil beds. And that's not the end of watering woes either.

Neglecting pest control is one of the common vegetable gardening mistakes to avoid at all costs, and doubly so for vertical gardens. When you irrigate your fruits, veggies, or whatever else you might grow, water easily splashes down from higher plants to those placed lower. This could potentially save you some water and effort, but it's only a boon if your plants are infestation-free. If any of the soil above is infected with harmful pests and pathogens, the dripping could spread them to plants down below.

Dripping water from vertical plants can also damage surfaces in your home, such as wallpaper and wooden porches. You'll need to waterproof the areas where your garden grows or take measures like placing collection troughs underneath each structure. A self-watering or hydroponic system can make irrigation less of a pain, but without one, you need to water each plant with care and stave off bugs and diseases to the best of your ability.

Vertical gardens also require vigilant pruning. When plants are clustered together, letting the crops on top grow wild creates shade and deprives lower plants of sunlight. Cutting off dead or excess growth ensures that your plants get adequate nutrients, keeps your garden neat, and further prevents the spread of pests. Lastly, vertical gardens need careful planning, especially if you build one indoors.

When you use flat soil beds to cultivate fast-growing vegetables or give store-bought herbs a second life, the way you arrange the crops matters. There are things you should never plant with tomatoes, other plants should be grouped since they have similar sunlight needs, and so on. This is even more crucial for vertical gardens, since the amount of light that plants get depends on where you set up your structures and the exact placement of each crop. You can't just place sun-loving eggplants, cucumbers, and strawberries on your shady pantry door and call it a day.

When working with vertical foundations, arrange full-sun crops towards the top and partial- to minimal-sun plants, like greens, celery, and rhubarb, at the middle and bottom. Get to know which areas of your home see the most and least light before building your garden. Also consider the size of the crops to prevent overcrowding – vertical gardens maximize space for you but minimize space for the plants, so don't cram too many big ones together.

All of this being said, vertical gardens have a lot of advantages. They look strikingly beautiful, are excellent for plants with shallow roots, like leafy herbs, gardenias, and butternut squash, and make gardening accessible for all. However, if the maintenance sounds like too much, consider using raised garden beds to make growing veggies easier or even repurpose an old coffee mug to grow herbs on your kitchen windowsill.