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Vertical Garden
Grow veggies without space
| Done in | 45 minutes |
|---|---|
| Skill level | basic |
You have no space but want to start a veggie garden and grow your own food? With vertical garden towers you can easily grow spinach, lettuce or herbs. The best thing: you do not need much water. You can build just one tower or string a few together. It might even help to secure your fence. So, let’s start stacking plastic bottles…
What you need
For every tower you need the following materials
- A Compost and Potting Soil Mix 10 Liter. You can also try to use your local soil but make sure that it is free of rubbish.
- 7 Plastic Bottles 2 liter cool drink bottles
- 2 fitting bottle lids
- A handful of Sand optional
- Wire, String or Plastic rope To attach the tower to a pole, wall or fence and to connect several towers with each other.
- Cutter Knife
- Hammer and nail Optional: Use together with a nail, to punch holes into the bottle lids.
- 5 Seedlings of your Choice Spinach, lettuce and herbs work best
How you make it
Find a good place for your garden tower(s)
It should be sunny and get at least 6 hours of sun per day. If you live in a hot area make sure you find a shady place. Vegetables do not like wind. So best find a corner where the wind does not go in too much. Make sure your vertical garden is protected by chicken or other animals around.
Prepare the bottom bottle of your vertical garden tower
Take a bottle with a bottle lid. Cut off the bottom of the bottle and remove the banderole.
Make two opposite holes in the top of the bottle with the cutter knife. They are important for drainage.
Fill the bottle with the soil mixture. Leave the top quarter of the bottle empty.
Prepare the Middle Bottles (#2, #3, #4, #5)
Now prepare the 2nd bottle of the tower. Remove the bandarole again, cut off the bottom and fill it with the soil mixture. Stack the bottle without a bottle lid into the first bottle.
Repeat the same with the third, fourth and fifth bottle. Mount the tower to a pole or fence. You can use wire, nylon or plastic rope.
Make the funnel and the water tank (bottles #6, #7)
Funnel: Take bottle #6 and cut off the bottom part, just as with the middle bottles.Take the lid off and do not fill it with soil. Stack it onto the tower.
Water tank: The last bottle will be used as a water tank on top of the funnel. Take bottle #7 and cut off the bottom part and stack it onto the tower. Take a handful of sand and put it in the water tank bottle. The sand will filter the water. Perforate the lid with a nail. Fill up the bottle with water. Now the water will drip in the funnel and then through all other bottles to the bottom.
Cut holes into the bottles
Take a cutter knife and cut one hole each in the first, the second, the third, the fourth and the fifth bottle. Do not make holes in the funnel and the water tank. Make 3 cuts for each hole so that there is a kind of pocket.
Water your vertical garden tower(s)
Fill up the top bottle with water. It will drip in the funnel and then through all other bottles to the bottom.
Plant your seedlings
Plant a seedling in every hole of the vertical garden. Before you set in a seedling, water it well. Press the roots of your seedling firmly into the soil. Take care that the plant looks upwards.
Optional: start the next vertical garden tower
How you maintain it
Keep your bottle garden moist. If it is very hot, water it once a day. Otherwise it is enough to water it every second or third day. After the seedlings have grown big, you can harvest them and set in a new seedling. Enjoy!
Notes
The original hack can be found in the wonderful blog Container Gardening by Prof. Dr. Willem Van Cotthem
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Guide by AAVF - African Association for Vertical Farming
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