Pumpkins don’t grow in trees . . . except at Rob and Richelle Taylor’s place. That’s right—they used to grow pumpkin vines laced among the limbs of fir and deciduous trees to delight their grandchildren. They had other reasons, too. They love gardening and needed more space. There was no place to go but up.

The couple shared the Snohomish County Master Gardener of the Year title in 2010, earning the honor with their multidimensional talents. Richelle’s photography throughout this article will show off Rob’s handiwork in vertical gardening. When he saw Rob’s building talents, Gordy Nueman, a long-standing Snohomish County Master Gardner, recognized Rob as a valuable recruit for the Snohomish Master Gardener Demonstration gardens. Both attended one of local horticulturist Scott Conner’s classes at Sunnyside Nursery, in Marysville.

After attending Conner’s class, Rob looked around for building materials. As in most Master Gardener programs, there wasn’t a whole lot of cash lying around. Soon he was envisioning vertical gardens made from non-traditional materials.

The first structure he built was a lettuce wall for the Snohomish County Master Gardeners’ Jennings Park Garden, a demonstration garden from which 3,000 pounds of produce was donated to the Marysville Food Bank last year. Every square foot is valuable. The lettuce wall takes up four square feet in a narrow, 1×4-foot configuration. It’s four feet high with space for 36 heads of lettuce to grow on each side. That’s 72 heads of lettuce.

Rob used lattice to define compartments. Tarps on both surfaces hold soil between the lattice. Perforated pipes for irrigation are placed within the soil, compost and organic fertilizer. Once fully assembled and filled, X’s are slashed in the tarp, from which lettuce plants sprout, seeking their share of sunlight. Harvesting is also easy on the back.

That was in 2009, now Rob has the whole northeast corner of Jennings Park filled with various vertical-gardening techniques. Mondays are food-bank harvest days. It is typical for last-minute goodies to emerge from that corner, to the surprise of Michelle Duncan and Janice Tallman, who are charged with running the garden. One or the other will typically say something like, “Where’d these come from?” The answer is always, “Rob grows them over there somewhere.” He really does pack it in.

Trellises of all types are useful, but are only a beginning. They can go almost anywhere and be made out of many things. Hog wire, however, has proven to be strong and versatile. Rob has used 16 feet by 52 inches to shape into a large tunnel for growing vines and runners. (It is so beautiful it could be used for a wedding.) The best plants for these are scarlet runner beans or spaghetti squash. When they become lushly grown, they can also serve as a cover for a shade garden. In winter, cover with plastic and use them as a greenhouse.

Other vertical favorites are delicata squash, Japanese and lemon cucumbers, all types of beans and peas, Italian squash and gourds. Pumpkins for pies are good in vertical plantings, and you can even use seeds saved from last year’s Halloween pumpkins for this year’s Jack o’Lanterns. Potatoes, strawberries and lettuce fill in foliage near the bottom with good fruit production.

How can heavy squash and pumpkins be supported? You might be surprised. The vines become stronger as the fruit grows, and substantial support is lent by leverage on the wire or bamboo in the trellis or a crook in a tree. As you watch your garden grow, there may be the occasional need to support a larger squash with an old nylon stocking.

More complex structures Rob has designed use many levels to grow. One with which he is particularly pleased was inspired by a grocery bin. It’s built on an angle, back to the front. There are drainage holes only at the bottom front. The bin has shorter veggies inside and is placed in front of a hog-wire fence. Hills of delicata or similar squash are planted below it at the back so they can be trained up the fence. Chains hang from the bottom front near the drainage holes teasing up climbing beans. Now that’s bang for your buck! The footprint is approximately two by three feet and the box is easily accessible at waist level.

Another extremely narrow garden was made using old gutters and wood trim. This structure has several levels. Even the side supports were productive towers, with perforated pipes filled with soil and compost. Strawberry vines flowed freely from them.

At the corner of the more traditional garden, Rob captured the space of a single post and turned it into a columnar garden. This one was made from narrow strips of wood pieced together with holes cut out. It was filled with soil and compost. Squash grew at the bottom, where the plants had ground support; strawberries flowed from aperture to aperture, runners producing new plants for next year. A lovely flowering plant graced the top. A four-to-six-inch PVC pipe with drainage holes could accomplish the same thing in a heartbeat.

Rob discourages using tires. They change the taste of things. His philosophy is to use what you can find. Be creative; don’t spend money if you don’t have to. But if you have the funds, buy cedar because it’s light and withstands the weather. Want a hanging tomato garden? Buy a utility bucket for a few dollars; punch in some drainage holes; fill, plant and hang it. It helps to plant a sacrificial lettuce plant on top. When it wilts, water the planter. You don’t need one of the fancy irrigation systems.

Now is the perfect time to start planning your garden on paper, with your seed catalogs, and to exchange seeds with gardening friends. This year, sketch a new vertical structure or two. Then start looking for building materials.

Maybe Charlie Brown should have been waiting for the Great Pumpkin next to a tree!