There are two different types of vertical gardening, and I've confused the two in a recent conversation, telling someone that "vertical gardening for clients makes me nervous" and she thought I was talking about planting runner beans and snap peas that climb up poles and on trellises. This doesn't intimidate me, the other, plant filled walls do. Both types can be really beautiful and great space savers. With the first method, you can grow beans, cucumbers, certain types of tomatoes, and even squash and melons.

According to the article The beauty of vertical gardening by Caroline Lewis proprietor of Verdura Culinary Gardens in Portland, Oregon, "The space that plants normally take up on the ground is greatly reduced. For example, a vining winter squash plant can grow to around eight feet long, sprawling all over the garden. Grown up a sturdy trellis, though, that same plant only occupies a couple of square feet of garden space. This is an important consideration for gardeners with limited space."

I thought she was talking about the other kind, like the incredible walls and building facades that Patrick Blanc has been installing around the world. These are becoming popular on smaller scales. And while they are like pieces of art, I just keep imagining so many things that could wrong...plants getting too big and falling out, or just not having enough soil, or getting too heavy and pulling out part of the wall.

I went down to Smith & Hawken to check out their vertical gardening box. It's pretty great, and the key is to have the soil going down at an angle and they have a water catchment system so if it's indoors, the water doesn't drain out on the floors.

And the Los Angeles Times published an article, Plant walls: Vertical planting for beauty and food about vertical salad boxes created by Anne Phillips of the landscape design and maintenance firm Go Green Gardeners.

So maybe these are manageable. I could start start small, with a creeping thyme vertical hanging. Rosemary seems pretty indestructable. Perhaps some creeping mint...The runner beans and sweat peas are already happening, training themselves onto my railings. That vertical gardening doesn't intimidate me.