Have you heard of Vertical Gardens?

Living in the city poses some problems for me. It's great to be able to walk to many great restaurants and have a convenience store within a five minute walk. But, I grew up in New Hampshire and have always enjoyed gardening and eating fresh from the vine. I remember when I was little my folks and I started a small garden in the backyard and it was all very exciting to watch grow and eventually harvest at the end.

DC Rowhouse has a pretty big yard for a city place. It is about 45x15, with about 525 square feet of grass. Technically, we could plant a pretty nice garden back there. There is a family who has created a whole garden on a 1/5 acre of land and even sells their organic produce to local restaurants. I think there is a video on their site Path to Freedom, which talks about the whole idea. It's truly amazing to see what they are accomplishing. They even have animals! Check out their yard:

It's clear we can make an amazing garden in our space. The problem is we like the open space to entertain. It's like having a whole other house in the warm weather. However, I also love the idea of having a bigger garden. Right now we have herbs, tomatoes, and some strawberries growing in containers on the deck. My solution? To start a "vertical garden". Go ahead and head to google images and search for "vertical garden". It's pretty outstanding. Check out this pic from Treehugger:

I could easily build two vertical gardens on our deck. Smith & Hawken (I know, two posts in a row with them in it!) have a pre-made one:

Though, I feel like I could build something for less. What do you think? Have you tried to garden vertically?