Why grow vertically?

Growing upward instead of outward might just be one of the simplest ways to grow smarter. Vertical gardening—encouraging your plants to climb instead of sprawl—saves space, reduces pests, and makes gardening (and harvesting) a whole lot easier. Check out the following posts for more information and a ton of inspiration on how you can start growing vertically in your own garden!

Featured

3 Reasons to Grow Vertically: Plants, People, and Productivity

How To Grow Cucumbers

How to grow tomatoes

How to Grow Peas Q +A

String trellising with Colin McCrate

Harvesting-homegrown-zucchini-off-of-the-Freyr-vegetable-garden-trellis.jpg

Crops you'll love to grow on the Freyr trellis!

Working with the Freyr trellis

Our Podcast

A listener-supported podcast about vegetable, fruit, and cut flower gardening. Each episode is a lively conversation between host Hilary Dahl and a guest contributor. We break down seemingly complicated garden concepts so that anyone can feel empowered to take on new projects and develop a greener thumb. Our goal is to provide practical information for gardeners of all levels.

Our podcast started in 2016 with short episodes, each focused on a specific crop. Over the past few seasons, the format has evolved and expanded. During the 2019 season, we interview experts from across the country on a variety of new topics. We take an in-depth look at wine grapes, fruit tree care, container gardening for edibles, backyard production-scale cut flower gardening, and other exciting topics.

Take a listen!

Average episode length: 35-45 minutes

A NOTE ON THE LINKS/DISCLOSURE: As an Amazon Associate your qualifying purchases support the educational content we create for the Seattle Urban Farm Company blog and the Encyclopedia Botanica Podcast. Thank you!!

Recent Podcast episodes

Featured

Mar 27, 2025

Growing Strawberries: From Planting to Harvesting

Mar 27, 2025

In Episode 124 of the Encyclopedia Botanica Podcast, host Hilary Dahl discusses how to cultivate strawberries with guest Kate Fessler, a researcher from the University of Minnesota.

Mar 27, 2025

Dec 16, 2024

Growing Broccoli, Cauliflower and Cabbage

Dec 16, 2024

In episode 119 of the Encyclopedia Botanica podcast, host Hilary Dahl is joined by her husband and business partner, Colin McCrate, to dig into the cultivation of broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage.

Dec 16, 2024

Dec 9, 2024

Oakleaf Papaya and Guava with Kyle Haggerty

Dec 9, 2024

In this episode of the Encyclopedia Botanica podcast, Kyle from Urban Farmstead discusses his experiences growing subtropical plants like oak leaf papaya and various guava varieties in his Sacramento backyard.

Dec 9, 2024

Nov 25, 2024

Fragrance in the Garden with Stefani Bittner

Nov 25, 2024

In episode 116 of the Encyclopedia Botanica podcast, host Hilary Dahl interviews Stefani Bittner, owner of Homestead Design Collective and author, about her latest book, 'The Fragrant Flower Garden.'

Nov 25, 2024

Nov 18, 2024

The Food Forward Garden with Christian Douglas

Nov 18, 2024

Dec 3, 2021

Episode 114: Garden Soil Ecosystems with Jeff Lowenfels

Dec 3, 2021

The quality of produce you grow is dependent on the quality of your soil. We are big advocates of doing everything possible to make garden soil the best it can be right from the start, and then working year after year to maintain and improve its quality. In this episode we're joined by award winning author Jeff Lowenfels to discuss the soil food web and garden soil ecosystems.

Dec 3, 2021

Your hosts and authors

Featured

Hilary Dahl

Hilary Dahl is a co-owner of Seattle Urban Farm Company and host of the Encyclopedia Botanica podcast. Since 2010 Hilary Dahl has been helping beginning and experienced growers create beautiful and productive gardens. She has the unique experience of working in on a wide range of projects, from small backyard garden plots to multi-acre vegetable farms. She also works in her own garden every day after work. Hilary is also the creator of our podcast, the Encyclopedia Botanica, which she started as a way to share effective and efficient garden management techniques, and as a way to spread her love of growing food and flowers!

Colin McCrate

Colin McCrate has been growing food organically for over 25 years. He worked on a variety of small farms in the Midwest before moving to the west coast in 2003 to teach garden-based environmental education. He founded the Seattle Urban Farm Company in 2007 with the goal of applying years of horticultural and agricultural expertise to help aspiring growers get projects off the ground or more accurately; in the ground.

Since starting Seattle Urban Farm Co in 2007, he has helped guide hundreds of urban farmers through the design, construction and management of their own edible landscape. Colin is the author of three books; Food Grown Right, In Your Backyard(Mountaineers Books, 2012) and Grow More Food (Storey Publishing, 2022); and is a garden writer for the Seattle Times.

There are decades of educational blog posts and podcast episodes in our archives. If you’re not seeing what you’re looking for on the page, search for your topic here:

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