Crate and Barrel Vertical Garden System
In last month’s post on space saving vertical gardening systems, I promised an update on the vertical garden kit I purchased from Crate and Barrel. I put it together this week and it is pretty great! Here’s the low down on the assembly and planting process:
Assembly
It was pretty easy to assemble, required only a couple of pieces to be screwed together, and the rest of the pieces slide together. The quality of the lumber is good and all pieces are cut to size. It comes with all the hardware and a drip irrigation system.
Planting Process
This went quickly too, although it used more potting soil than I expected! About 4 cubic feet. It was easiest to put the soil in a bucket and use that to fill the planter rather than pour directly from the bags. The bags are pretty unwieldy. The soil is filled from the top. I added fertilizer as each row was filled so it would be evenly distributed throughout the planter. Also, I adjusted the drip irrigation line as I filled each row so that it was evenly placed throughout the planter.
The planter holds a lot of plants! Which is what we want vertical gardens to do! I bought one six pack each of parsley, cilantro, basil, and bunching onions, 2 six packs of strawberries and 2 4-inch patio tomatoes (patio tomatoes stay short, tall tomatoes would probably be too top heavy for this planter). Note that I only put 5 plants in each row. Six was a little too crowded. The two tomatoes I planted in the top row. If I had planted in the cool season, I would have used lettuce instead of tomatoes.
Caring For
The drip irrigation line has a hose attachment so I bought a short garden hose and a splitter for the faucet so I could attach the hose to the planter and still have my regular garden hose attached to the faucet. When I want to water the planter, I just turn on the valve for that hose, let it run until I see water dripping out the bottom and then turn it off. So far so good! I’m already harvesting the herbs, have my first two strawberries ripe, and hope to have tomatoes in a month!
Rating
Thumbs up! A little expensive at about $300, but probably not too bad when you consider how long it would take to make one!
Assembled planter ready for soil.
Fill with soil from the top. Using a bucket is easiest.
To water, attach a garden hose to drip system.
hello, it seems all are built from scratch by yourself. the design is good, how much does it cost to build a vertical garden like this?
I bought the kit from Crate and Barrel, it cost $299.