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Flickr Find: Hanging Vegetable Garden

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This is practically one of the wonders of the world. This particular hanging garden isn't just decorative, though - it's a vegetable garden...

 
 

Taken at the Rosemoor Royal Horticultural Garden in Great Torrington, England, these squashes are thriving, growing up and over a trellis, creating a covered walkway. Not only are the plantings beautiful, they're edible, too.

Image: Flickr member me'nthedogs under license by Creative Commons

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Flickr Finds, gardening, Outdoor, vegetable garden

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Comments (21)

WOWIE ZOWIE! That's a-freaking-mazing.

posted by mlleErica on June 16th 2009 at 4:54pm
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I wonder how heavy they can get before falling... and is their shape a result of hanging, or are they normally shaped like that?

Very nice, though. I would love to have something like this!

posted by pattycake118 on June 16th 2009 at 5:00pm
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I would love to see more photos- this looks amazing!

posted by Jennyb on June 16th 2009 at 5:05pm
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I would love to do that at home! Do you think it requires special cultivation techniques or do I just let the vines grow over the trellis?

posted by mschwartz on June 16th 2009 at 5:06pm
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I saw one just like this in Seoul, South Korea. It was really beautiful.

posted by heather77 on June 16th 2009 at 5:19pm
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Farmlab in Los Angeles has a beautiful garden with a similar feature of hanging squash.

posted by HurryUpTheCakes on June 16th 2009 at 5:19pm
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Farmlab in Los Angeles had a similar garden of hanging squash - it is amazing

posted by HurryUpTheCakes on June 16th 2009 at 5:24pm
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While this looks awesome I am pretty sure that the squashes in the picture would more properly be called gourds. This is important because (inedible) gourds, being mostly hollow, are much lighter than (edible) squash.

posted by Nancy_Claire on June 16th 2009 at 5:30pm
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This is magical!

Nancy Claire, you may be right. But I think you could do this with pumpkins if you used old pantyhose to support the fruit, making a sling for it. It wouldn't be as beautiful, though.

Another thought: Could you carve the gourds while they're still attached to the plant (somehow) and put little candles in them? That would be really great.

posted by aaakid on June 16th 2009 at 6:01pm
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Would also like to see more pics.
And hear all these interesting ideas about what to do with them.

posted by sassydo on June 16th 2009 at 6:19pm
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The gardeners in my family used do this all the time with the various asian vegetables they grow because you couldn't find them in markets. (Now with farmers markets everywhere, they don't grow as many veggies as they used to.) The support trellises they made were made from all sorts of found wood and metal, covered in chicken wire or the like. I think for a while my dad had one made from our old backyard monkey bar set.

I think this works best if the variety of squash doesn't get too heavy. I can't imagine pumpkins would do well, for example.

My granduncle would harvest most of his squash, but leave a few on the vine to dry for seed.

One of my favorite childhood memories is carefully creeping through the tunnel, avoiding the bittermelon and long squash (some 24-36 inches long!), inhaling the smell of dirt, and relishing the shade and privacy. That's instantly what I thought of when I saw that picture. Thanks!

posted by jennybenny on June 16th 2009 at 6:39pm
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This can indeed be done with edible squashes--trombetta, which has large, trombone-shaped fruits, is a great dramatic one for using on a trellis. The fruits don't suffer in any way and in addition to saving space in the garden, growing vertically lets the vine get more sun and prevents the leaves from getting powdery mildew from being in contact with damp soil. Melons, on the other hand, can also be grown this way but generally do need support from a sling made from pantyhose. Sunset magazine did a great article on this a while back--find it by visiting their website and searching for growing squash.

posted by threebeans on June 16th 2009 at 6:48pm
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Sure is alot nicer than this:

https://www.asseenontvnetwork.com/tomatotree/?cid=649970

posted by bepsf on June 16th 2009 at 7:11pm
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Reminds me of the work they do at Epcot. Very cool.

posted by baileyb on June 16th 2009 at 7:31pm
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For those of you in Vancouver (canada, not washington), have a wander through the back lanes of east vancouver. You'll see lots of these kinds of gardens: very efficient use of space, and super easy to pick your goodies when they're ready.

posted by wc_canuck on June 16th 2009 at 8:45pm
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Funny, I saw this at Epcot in May.

posted by Alaricus on June 17th 2009 at 12:40am
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ingenious! i wish i had come up with this... :-)

posted by cafegurl19 on June 17th 2009 at 10:31am
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even though its corny, i must say....this is gourd-geous.

posted by Kpaige13 on June 18th 2009 at 12:39pm
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This is how I have seen chayote grown on my trips to Costa Rica. Much easier to harvest and it stops having fruit that rots on the ground.

posted by pbelardo on June 19th 2009 at 8:24am
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I've seen several of these over the years here in Los Angeles, usually in predominately immigrant neighborhoods, filled with Asian veggies.

posted by chez shoes on June 19th 2009 at 9:16am
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I do grow squash and pumpkins this way and it works just fine. I probably wouldn't try anything really huge, but I have gotten decent sized fruit without anything more than a trellis for support. It is actually an old trick for getting gourds with straight stems.

posted by jleh on June 22nd 2009 at 10:13pm
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