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everything a lot easier.
    Building a Greenhouse Outdoors
    If you don’t have enough space in your home or would like additional growing space for your year-round vertical garden, you can build or buy a green house. This will keep your plants warm enough during the winter to keep them growing.
    You’d be surprised at how many plants you could fit into a greenhouse using vertical gardening setups, compared to what would be allowed with in-the-ground gardening. You can produce a large yield of fruits, vegetables and herbs that can be plucked year-round. You may just fall in love with a vertical garden greenhouse!
    Grow Annuals, Perennials and Vines
    These types of plants grow fast and don’t need much help to do so. Even without much light and human intervention, they grow rapidly and produce lots of flowers. You can grow these on your walls in pots or frames.
    Make sure to keep the dead wood and leaves trimmed off so that the plant will continue to grow. Keep in mind that annuals grow faster than perennials - if you are going to start seeds indoors, you want to time it correctly.
     

C HAPTER 7. C OMPOSTING FOR Y OUR V ERTICAL G ARDEN
    When I was a kid growing up, my parents had a big “compost pile” in our back yard. It was always my chore every week to take out the “compost bucket” underneath our sink.
    We always had a very strict policy – if we were going to throw something away and it was food scraps, we had to throw them in the compost bucket. If it was plastic or paper trash, we had to throw it in the trash can. I just thought it was normal to always be composting!
    I remember playing out in our big compost pile as a kid. I would always have fun using a pitchfork to toss the fresh food scraps in with the rich, dark compost. Of course, there were times when the smell was so bad taking out the compost bucket… but I do have very fond memories of composting as a young kid!

    Above is a picture of my compost pile at my parents’ home where I grew up. That’s good compost!
    Compost isn’t just for fun though – it’s one of the best forms of fertilizers that you can use for your vertical garden. If you are looking for a sure way to give your vertical garden plenty of nutrients, and cheaply, composting is definitely the way to go.
    The great thing about composting is that you can create it on your own. You can start off with a store-bought package of compost, but you won’t have to keep buying it. Compost is simple to make and affordable – in fact, it can be totally free!

C OMPOSTING THE C HEAP W AY
    First, we’ll talk about the frugal way to create compost on your own. Before we get into that, let’s talk about what compost is...
    Compost is a mixture of organic matter that has begun to decompose, transitioning into awesome fertilizer for your soil. Some people even grow their fruits, vegetables and herbs directly in compost without any soil. Compost can be made up of dirt, scraps of veggies, grass, flowers, leaves, fruits, mushrooms and other scraps that grow from the ground.
    You can place this in a wooden box or container with earth worms, scraps of cut grass, leftover veggies and fruits, then cover it up and let it sit to begin decomposing. If there’s a dry spell or drought, you should water the compost pile a little to keep it damp and so that the earthworms don’t dry out. The water will also help the bacteria decompose the organic matter – they can’t do it if there’s no moisture!
    Place your compost box in a warm place in your home or outside (preferably outside because of the smell, but there are indoor composting units you can buy that seal tightly and keep the smell at a minimum). You should stir or mix your compost every now and then to allow oxygen to penetrate through the bottom layers.
    Once your compost is ready, you can begin using it in your garden. There are soil tests that you can use to see how much nutrients are in your compost. You should try using nutrient-rich organic