About 85% of Canadians live in an urban environment, and many live in apartment buildings. You're one of them and you would like to grow edibles at home, but you have no yard? Why not simply grow your vegetables and herbs on a wall!
It is relatively easy to grow vegetables, herbs and edible flowers on a green wall made up of plastic cases or thick geotextile pockets.
Make sure to place the edibles you're growing in a vertical position on a wall that receives lots of sun and that is well protected from the wind. Also, it is essential that the cases or pockets making up the green wall contain large quantities of rich but light soil containing compost, peat moss and perlite.
"Photo credit: Les Urbainculteurs"
When planting, do not forget to add a natural slow release fertilizer that is rich in nitrogen and potassium. Almost all vegetables and herbs can be grown on a green wall, even carrots and potatoes! Those that are the best adapted are the vegetables and herbs that are grown for their leaves, such as chards, spinach, kale and leaf lettuce.
Also, most herbs can easily be grown on a wall. Basil, chives, mint, oregano, parsley, creeping rosemary, savory and thyme are among those that are the most comfortable with it.
If you want to grow tomatoes on a wall, choose a cultivar that is compact and trailing, and that will produce small fruits, such as ‘Chibikko’, ‘Lizzano’ or ‘Tiny Tim’, for instance. Eggplant and pepper cultivars producing small fruits, like those from the Mini Bell series for example, can also be grown on a green wall.
By Albert Mondor, horticulturist
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