Derek Fell wrote the words and shot the photos for his newest book, Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space. Flower growers should not be dissuaded by the book’s cover and author’s photo touting squash and tomatoes. There are plenty of finds for flower gardeners packed into this easy read.
As Fell tells it, he has been growing vertical since his six year old hands planted seeds of green peas. Now, the author writes about the bottom up and top down plantings that epitomize vertical gardening, where gardeners thoroughly utilize the space above the traditional horizontally planted plane.
In Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space, Fell describes the techniques and tools he has tried and the plants grown on his 20-acre farm. This is a comprehensive guide that includes suggestions for developing the bases of any garden, the soil and, in this case, the structural supports vertical gardens lean on.
Growing Flowers with No-dig Composted Soil
Fell values growing plants upward, flowers and vegetables, for the minimal in-bed space required. While vertical gardening uses less soil and composted resources, the plants still need well-amended soil to continually produce blooms on healthy plants. Fell references no-dig gardens as a useful process for growing vertically.
The author immediately gives attention to the no-dig information. He offers many styles of situ (in place) composting as found, for example, in Lasagna Gardening by Patricia Lanza. Fell refers to a larger scale project, the Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization near Fort Myers, Florida. It has a demonstration garden that maintained no-dig composting in their vegetable garden over many years.
No-dig gardening uses in-place composting processes to develop healthy soil; it is especially advantageous for small outdoor spaces to grow plants. Complete separate chapters are more broadly devoted to preparing soil and composting in Vertical Gardening.
Vertical Supports for Growing Ornamental Plants
Fell provides gardeners with a vast collection of techniques and tools, homemade and store-bought, those growers who favor ornamental plants, and who garden for food. Beyond the traditional trellis made of lattice and the mass-manufactured arbors here are some vertical forms elaborated on in Vertical Gardening:
- Growing bamboo and harvesting for a homemade trellis or tripod.
- Using builder’s wire fastened between posts for plants to climb up.
- Garden netting strung across wooden stakes and sunk into a whiskey barrel.
- Using a strawberry pot for herbs, not one, but stacking them into a tower.
There are many complicated as well as simple vertical pot holder systems sold in garden centers and big-box stores. Derek Fell is responsible for creating the Skyscraper system. The 47 pages of color photos in the center of Vertical Gardening, will offer flower gardeners much inspiration, from the hydroponic pot tower to sheer vertical facings blanketed with blooms.
Garden Grower Writer and Photographer Derek Fell
Derek Fell is generous with his garden inventions like the no-longer-secret-compost tea or his much favored tomato/potato combo plant. The work of this garden grower, writer and photographer has been heavily influenced by Great Britain’s horticultural photographer Harry Smith. At the invitation of the late David Burpee, Fell came to the United States, eventually becoming executive director of the All-America Selections and National Garden Bureau organizations.
Fell makes is home and gardens in the hardiness zone 6 of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in a place called Cedaridge Farm, and in the hardiness zone 10 of Sanibel Island, Florida, on one acre of tropical land.
Taking Vertical Gardening into a Flowering Bed
Derek Fell leads flower and vegetable growers into the world of vertical gardening with his comfortable writing style. It is apparent he is at home with what he has discovered about growing plants up and down. Flower gardeners will find chapters thoroughly devoted to perennial and woody ornamentals, as well as annual vines.
Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space by Derek Fell was published by Rodale on April 26, 2011. To locate the hardcover book, gardeners can use ISBN 978-1-60529-082-9 and for the paperback version use ISBN 978-1-60529-083-6. Black and white images are also found throughout; all illustrations are by Michael Gellatly. The index covers plant names in botanical and common forms and gardening subjects.
Permission received for all photos used in this article.
Chris Eirschele - Chris writes on plants grown and gardens explored; she is a member of the Garden Writers Association.
