Low Cost Gardening: Vertical Growing-Using Drop Side Crib Rails

When it comes to gardening, space is the one item that is always at a premium.  If you do not want to grow any of the vine-type crops then you will probably be fine.  However, once you want to start growing pumpkins, cucumbers, squash, water melon and other similar crops, you quickly find out how little space you have.

I love garden fresh cucumbers and those bright orange pumpkins that I watch all summer with eager anticipation. Every year, I become more and more dependent on those crops. But I do not like how chaotic the garden looks as those plants overtake everything. Over the past two years, I have started to contemplate   and even attempt to vertical gardening, particularly with my cucumbers.

This year I decided to take the vertical gardening to a whole new level.  My husband is still busy working on kitchen cabinets, so I really did not want to take him away from that project to build several trellises for my garden. I began to think outside the box and ponder what materials I could use to make the job less cumbersome. Having seen several interior decorating articles on what to do with old, drop side cribs, which no longer meet federal regulations, I had an “Ah-ha moment”.  Everyone is getting rid of them and the side rails are perfect to make basic tee-pee style trellises.

In our area, the local towns offer a once a year bulk item trash pickup. You can probably guess what is in a large number of those “Free piles”. Yes, plenty of drop-side cribs (along with some lattice which also works well). We found so many that we had to drop the kids off at my parents’ to make room in the van.

Here are some pictures of our crib and lattice finds:

This wicker chair also just screamed at me to let something grow up it in the garden.  I planted pole beans all around the base. I’m not sure how they will do and whether it is worth the space in the garden. It does make a very good conversation piece though. My 2 year old daughter has also taken quite the liking to it, sitting in it while I work in the garden.

Gardening does not need to be expensive.  There are so many different items that you can use for your garden.  Look in your attic, garage, shed, barn or wherever you store your excess items.  Your imagination is the limit so please share your ideas of re-purposing items for garden use.