With the high cost of food these days, you may have wished that you could start growing your own fruits and vegetables, only to be stymied because you don’t have enough land to do so.

The solution is to build a garden trellis, for either vegetables or fruits.  This method is called “vertical gardening” or “growing up,” or using a “square in the air.”

You can purchase a trellis from a garden store, or build your own.  The trellises sold in stores are two dimensional, and are usually in the shape of a fan or a lattice.  If you build your own, you can really go to town, building a three-dimensional trellis in the shape of a large open rectangle, as high as you like, and running nylon string, or wire, vertically from top to bottom, or in a V-shape.  Each string will support a single plant, of whatever type of plant you wish to grow.  You merely have to train it to grow along the strings.

Plans to build such trellises may be found on the internet, or in handyman-type books on gardening.

These trellises are like the filing cabinets of your garden.  Instead of having the plant sprawling gracelessly along on the ground, it rises up along the strings.  Even the smallest of gardens can grow at least twice as much produce this way, because it leaves more room for raised beds for other produce such as beets, carrots, and salad greens.

Before you start your trellis gardening, make sure you sketch out a plan of how you wish your garden to look.  If you already have a well-established garden, you’ve tested the soil on a regular basis and know what grows best where.  If you’re just starting out, however, you’ll want to test your soil, with inexpensive kits purchased from your local garden center, and improve the soil if necessary, before you start your trellis work.