I think the problem with hang-growing is that you have to spread out your rows further apart to allow enough sunshine to get to the bottom layers. However there are some plants that do very well when grown in the same space, such as the ‘three sisters’ method. It would be interesting to see a study done based off of modern knowledge to see how much actual space would be needed for the largest variety of food, and what kind of failure rate you should expect without access to fertilizers or pest control.
I think we might be looking at this fundamentally differently.
I’m not talking rows of hanging plants, that’s probably worse than direct sowing, given the shade footprint. You put those where nothing else grows, or to shade plants that need some shade.
So like over concrete, between beds if your yard sucks for in-ground (mine is gravel 3 inches down) or off a porch or something.
Ah gotcha… I thought you were referring to maximizing the amount of crops in a given area where you basically planted in all three dimensions to use up less yard space. And sure, with proper planning you could still do that to some degree, I was just imagining rows of tightly-spaced hanging baskets all competing for sunlight.
I think the problem with hang-growing is that you have to spread out your rows further apart to allow enough sunshine to get to the bottom layers. However there are some plants that do very well when grown in the same space, such as the ‘three sisters’ method. It would be interesting to see a study done based off of modern knowledge to see how much actual space would be needed for the largest variety of food, and what kind of failure rate you should expect without access to fertilizers or pest control.
I think we might be looking at this fundamentally differently.
I’m not talking rows of hanging plants, that’s probably worse than direct sowing, given the shade footprint. You put those where nothing else grows, or to shade plants that need some shade.
So like over concrete, between beds if your yard sucks for in-ground (mine is gravel 3 inches down) or off a porch or something.
Ah gotcha… I thought you were referring to maximizing the amount of crops in a given area where you basically planted in all three dimensions to use up less yard space. And sure, with proper planning you could still do that to some degree, I was just imagining rows of tightly-spaced hanging baskets all competing for sunlight.