From pot plant to plate

Vertical gardens remain incredibly popular, firstly because they take up little room and it makes good sense to have your own food bowl in your backyard. And while your vertical garden will look great when it’s fruiting, it will look and taste even better when it’s on your plate.

If you’re keen to see some great, fresh produce turned into amazing meals, make sure you visit the Kleenheat Kitchen at the Perth Garden Festival.

Vertical veggies

Almost any vegetable can adapt to being grown in a pot in a vertical garden, but some do better than others. Here are some popular veggies that will grow well in your vertical garden.

Peas Plant the peas in a container and let them climb up a trellis to make picking them easier. If you cut off the growing tips it will help promote branching, and as another bonus, you can use them in stir fries.

Tomatoes In a vertical garden you have two choices, you can either grow the tomato plants at a lower level, so they grow up. Or you can plant them at a higher level and let the plants hang down. Either way, you’ll have a bountiful, tasty crop of tomatoes to harvest.

Garlic Plant garlic cloves in light soil and give them just enough water to keep them growing. While you’re waiting for the bulbs to finish growing, you can use the stalks of garlic in your stir fries. They have a mild garlic flavour. You know it’s time to harvest your garlic when around half of the leaves have died down.

Growing greens

Greens are perfect for vertical gardens. Picking them is so much easier and you can just take the mature leaves to the kitchen when you need them, so the plant continues growing.

Spinach Spinach is perfectly suited to vertical gardens. Sow a decent amount of seeds and thin out the seedlings as they grow bigger.And once again, you can harvest the leaves as you need them.

Handfuls of herbs

Your vertical garden isn’t complete without herbs. Here are some that you can grow close to your kitchen for when you need them.

	Basil Try growing several different types of basil for a wider variety of flavours. Basil grows well in rich soil in medium-sized pots.
Oregano Grow either Mexican or Mediterranean oregano, or both, in light soil and keep them on the drier side. A few small pots will provide you with enough fresh herbs.
	Mint If you’re only using a few leaves at a time, you can grow a large selection of mints in small pots. Pinch off the growing tips to keep the plants bushy.
Coriander Sow several coriander seeds in medium sized pots and keep the soil moist to stop premature flowering and seeding.

Reap what you sow

The beauty of growing a vertical garden filled with vegies and herbs is that you can be harvesting all-year round, and it’s a very short distance from the pot plant to the plate.

As your family and friends admire your vertical garden, you can impress them even more by using your home-grown produce in this delicious recipe for red duck curry with lychees.

If your mouth’s watering and imagination is running wild – head along to the Kleenheat Kitchen at the 2019 Perth Garden Festival for more flavour combinations from our guest chefs plus tips for growing top-notch produce at home.

Kleenheat exclusive – 50% off Perth Garden Festival tickets

We’ve dug up a great deal! Kleenheat customers can enjoy 50% off PGF tickets by simply selecting the Kleenheat member special when placing an order online. Order your tickets.