This post isn’t about coyote stew, but I found you a recipe anyhow. It’s about vertical gardens.

Many of us have walls and fences that could use a facelift. Additionally, many of us care to grow our own food. We can kill two birds with a single stone. From countryliving.com:

As long as you’ve got a blank wall or bare fence that needs beautifying, you can tend edibles, annuals, even perennials with these vertical gardening ideas — all of which inspire high hopes for the season ahead.

You’ve been following this blog long enough to know that I romanticize living off my land. I fantasize about raising and slaughtering my own animals and hunting in the Santa Monica mountains behind my home. I love the thought of a chicken coop with birds producing the highest quality eggs. I have a freezer behind my home that stores the remaining portions of the half cow I purchased last year. It’s nearly empty and ready for whatever animal flesh I store in it next.

I also love vegetables and have grown them somewhat successfully in the past. I have yet to try a “hanging” or “vertical” garden. I’ve been missing a no brainer. Prettying up a chain link fence with organic sustenance is too efficient for us to sleep on any longer. From bhg.com:

Vertical gardens — think living walls — are of the hottest new garden trends and yet it’s one of the oldest (have you ever grown a vine on a fence or trellis?). A vertical garden is a perfect solution for just about any garden — indoors or out.

Vertical garden elements can draw attention to an area or disguise an unattractive view. In a vertical garden, use structures or columnar trees to create vertical gardening rooms or define hidden spaces ready for discovery. Trellises, attached to the ground or to large containers, allow you to grow vines, flowers, and vegetables in a vertical garden using much less space than traditional gardening requires.

Trendy or niche, I’m ready to dive in. Taking the first step will be key. From urbanfarmonline.com:

Starting a vertical garden isn’t hard. Many garden-supply centers offer ready-made supports, including stackable containers and an assortment of trellises, tepees and netting. The most common structures are those designed to support tomatoes, such as the tomato cage and the hanging “upside-down” tomato planters.

Nice. I crush tomatoes daily. Solid.

There are a surprising number of items that can easily be put to work as garden supports: fences, old gutters, saplings, branches, other plants and even your apartment staircase. For small spaces, vertical gardens often work best in combination with containers or raised beds.

We’ve already established that we’ll be covering chain link, so we’re square here.

The plants that thrive in a vertical garden are those that are naturally vining, sending out tendrils to grasp their way along as they grow, including cucumbers, winter squash, pumpkins, melons and grapes. But tall, non-vining plants, such as tomatoes, work equally well in a vertical system, given the proper support. And believe it or not, you can even grow low-growing plants vertically.

I’m in. Not that I won’t be hunting and eating coyote (recipe below) sooner rather than later, but this vertical garden thing seems like a more manageable task today.

Strong mind,

Kap

Crock Pot Coyote

• One small jar of peach preserves.
• One bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce.
• 3/4 of a yellow onion, chopped.
• Half teaspoon of garlic powder.

Throw it all into a large crock pot for 8 hours, serve over brown rice.