If your place is small and you don't have much room to plant, an easy and inexpensive way to expand your garden is to - grow up!

Growing vertically has many advantages over standard gardening, according to Linn County Master Gardener Dwaine Reid.

"It takes up less space, provides shade, increases production of vegetables and fruits and you don't have to bend over to pick them either," he says.

If you are an aging gardener or have some type of disability, adapting to vertical gardening, can be helpful. Reid had a stroke six years ago and had to modify things on his land.

He is always happy to share his vertical methods to make gardening easier and fun.

CATTLE PANEL

"For me I saw 16 foot by 4 foot cattle panels as an answer to formerly using two tall orchard ladders that were strung with string between them to have my pole bean grow up," Reid says. "Was a good idea until the beans acted like a sail and blew one of the ladders over."

Galvanized cattle panels cost you $26.99 at Wilco Farmers or Coastal Farm & Ranch Supply. That is less than $1.70 per foot, but they'll last you 20 years.

Steps:

1. Use a bolt cutter to cut on both sides of the center rod (across the width). This gives you two 8-foot pieces, with 8 inch "stems." Use the stem end to press into soft soil (like tomato cages) where you want your vine plant to grow up.

2. With tall side up, Reid puts his panels at right angles of each other forming a capital letter C, or cube shape (approximately 4 feet by 4 feet), holding the panels together with zip ties. (Takes two zip strips on each side at around a penny apiece, placing one in the middle and one at the top.)

3. This allows him to use both sides of the panel for planting his pole beans. At 2 inches apart, he equates this to a double planting - providing him with 24 feet of beans in a relatively small space.

4. Tip: Leave an opening to allow you to go inside each cube to harvest. To make the cube more rigid, Reid suggests using a piece (inch or 11/2) PVC pipe a little wider than the width of the opening, drilling a small hole at each end. (Habitat for Humanity Resale is a good source for used PVC at a reasonable price.)

5. Water with soaker hose placed along the base of the panels.

6. "We like Dilly beans and prefer the Blue Lake variety," Reid says.

7. When the beans are trying to tendril gently guide them to attach to the vertical rods. No messy string needed!

CHOICES

"Anything that will tendril will work on the panels," Reid says.

He grows pole beans, watermelon, cantaloupe, cucumbers, etc. The melons will support their weight and picked a few days early will keep them from falling to the mice and critters below.

* He also likes to grow grapes, wisteria and other vines on cattle panels. His 30 year old grape arbor provides a nice shady spot for outdoor dining.

* With the panels laid on their sides - making an upside down V - zip-tie them together to plant tomatoes to grow up through the panel squares. Keeps the tomatoes off the ground, clean and visible, Reid says.

* Using a device for bending metal, he has made pot hooks that gallon plastic pots can be easily attached to cattle panels for another adaptation of vertical gardening.

* Fellow Master Gardener, Marcia Swanson grows potatoes in a wire cage which she periodically has to add more soil as the plants grow upward. This adaptive gardening method allows you to harvest potatoes without digging.

"Last year I harvested about 22 pounds of potatoes of three different varieties," she says.

* Espaliering fruit trees on wire is another vertical (and horizontal) way to keep fruit at levels easy to harvest.

* Rather than throw old (unsafe to climb anymore) wooden ladders out - Reid suggests recycling them into a vertical garden. He centers a plastic gallon pot on each step - attaching it to the step by drilling a screw through the bottom. (Tip: Position each pot under the one above it with the drain hole facing forward so that when you water the top one, it drains to the next, and so forth - a good sense tip for saving you money on water.) Pots can be obtained for free at the First Alternative Co-op recycling area or reasonably priced at Habitat Resale stores.