How to Create the Ultimate Patio Garden

Transform Your Patio With a Vertical Vegetable Garden 

Just because you don’t have enough space for a traditional garden doesn’t mean that you can’t grow your own food—if you have a patio, that’s all you need. With the help of vertical vegetable gardens, growing in even the smallest areas is easy. In this blog post, we’ll show you how to create a beautiful outdoor space with the added bonus of fresh herbs, vegetables, and greens for your entire family.

Who Should Get a Patio Garden?

Small Families, Elderly Couples, or Even Home Designers Can Enjoy

Great news: patio gardens are an excellent investment for everyone. Whether you’re elderly and looking for a fun enrichment hobby or are a small family who wants to save money and teach your children about gardening, a patio garden is perfect. It’s also practical for those who are looking to grow their own food but don’t have enough space for traditional gardening. 

If you don’t fit into any of these categories, don’t sweat it! Patio gardens are for anyone and everyone who thinks they’d benefit from one, even if it’s just giving your outdoor space a natural, decorative feel. When you add our vertical vegetable garden to your patio, it can grow the perfect amount of edible flowers, herbs, veggies, and greens for a small family to eat—why not try it out?

The Benefits of Having Your Own Patio Garden

Why You Should Get a Patio Garden

One of the biggest benefits of having a patio garden is the fact that it’s a great financial investment—over time, you can start to see savings from spending less on produce and taking fewer trips to the store. You’ll also be less likely to waste food, as you can harvest as needed AND pick in peak ripeness. Not only will you save money, but you’ll also know where your food is coming from and can have complete control over the growing process, too.

Growing your own food can also have a positive impact on your health. Having fresh, nutritious food in a convenient location makes you and your family more likely to eat cleaner. Plus, an organic garden will improve your children’s health, as they’re more sensitive to pesticides. Aside from all of the practical benefits, it can also simply give your outdoor space a breath of life and serve as a great decoration.

Ensure Healthy Plants By Meeting Condition Requirements

Space, Light, and Temperature Considerations

Before you begin planning your outdoor space, it’s important to make sure that your patio has the correct conditions for growing plants, herbs, and veggies. The three most important conditions you need to consider are:

• Space: Depending on the size of your patio, you may be able to include small garden beds or multiple vertical vegetable gardens. By measuring the amount of space you have to work with, you’ll be able to better understand what you can place in your patio garden.
• Light: Light is by far the most important part of any garden, whether it’s in the ground, on a patio, or even vertical. The first step in ensuring that your patio has a sufficient amount of light is determining which way it faces. Patios that face south and west tend to get extreme sunlight, while north and east-facing patios are significantly shadier. Different plants need different intensities and amounts of light, so make sure you’re picking the correct plants for these conditions!
• Temperature: When growing outdoors, it’s always crucial to monitor the temperature of your space. Patios can become cold during strong winds and very warm during the dog days of summer. If your patio does become extremely warm, you can provide shade with a popup canopy or large umbrella for a few hours during the hottest part of the day to protect your plants from extreme temperatures.

Once you’ve determined the conditions of your balcony, it’s time to start designing and assembling!

Start Planning and Assembling Your Vertical Vegetable Garden and Patio

The Fun Part is Here—Let’s Start Decorating!

Now that the more difficult steps are over, it’s time to have fun and start planning your garden! You can plant anything that your patio’s conditions allow for, but some of our favorites include edible flowers and chard to expand our children’s palettes and keep them healthy. Another Garden Tower favorite is kale—when you use the “cut and come again” method, you can continue to get greens from the same plant all season long. Some other plants that are loved by kids and thrive on patios include broccoli, peppers, strawberries (everbearing varietals), and tomatoes.

After you’ve decided what you’d like to grow, all that’s left is assembly! This step will be different for everyone depending on patio conditions and what they’ve decided to plant, so we’ll leave this one to you. If you’re growing with a Garden Tower®, though, we have a large number of resources explaining assembly available.

Patio gardens are the hottest new way to grow your own food when you have limited space. Now that you have all of the necessary info to create your own, we’ll let you get back to setting up. Interested in learning more about vertical vegetable gardening? Visit Garden Tower Project today to learn more about growing your own food while simultaneously transforming outdoor spaces.