• Almost anyone can have a vertical garden growing vegetables.cucumber vegetable image by Kostyantyn Ivanyshen from Fotolia.com
  
  Grow vining vegetables whether you have a large garden or a small one. All you need is a cage, vertical fence or trellis to support the vines. If space isn't a factor, let the vines sprawl across the ground. Using supports in any size garden can help make harvesting less of a chore and more enjoyable.
  
  

Sweet Potatoes

• Sweet potato vines need room to roam as they spread across the ground. Roots grow from nodes along the length of the vine and take root in the soil. Sweet potatoes are a warm-season vegetable and need four to five months of warm temperatures to produce the maximum amount of vegetables. A slightly shorter season will still produce enough sweet potatoes to eat. Sweet potato vines prefer a well-drained, sandy, fertile soil with a pH of 5.6 to 6.5. Form a wide, 8-inch-high ridge when you plant the seeds, leaving 3 to 4 feet between each row.
  
  

Peas

• When it comes to choosing a pea vine, you have three choices: snap peas, English peas or snow peas. English peas, also called garden peas, come in smooth-seeded or wrinkled-seeded varieties. The wrinkled variety tastes sweet, while smooth-seeded is often used in soup. Snow peas, also called sugar peas, are flat pods, tender to eat, without peas inside the shell. Snap peas have immature peas inside and make a snapping sound when you break them open. Pea vines are climbing, needing a trellis for support, or the low-growing kind that trails across the ground. Peas like cool weather and are planted in well-drained soil that's at least 45 degrees Fahrenheit with a pH of 6.0 to 6.7.
  
  

Cucumbers

• Cucumbers, another warm-season vegetable, grow on vines in the home garden. Let the vines sprawl across the ground in large gardens, or train them to climb a fence, trellis or wire cage in smaller gardens. To grow a large healthy crop of cucumbers, provide them with loose, fertile, well-drained soil with a pH of 6.0 to 7.0. They like sunny days and temperatures between 65 and 75 degrees F. Place the vines in an area protected from the wind, so the long, slicing varieties aren't tossed around by gusts of wind. The smaller varieties of cucumbers are used for making gherkin pickles.
  
  

Winter Squash

• Winter squash vines need room to sprawl, about 50 to 100 square feet per hill in a large garden, or a trellis to climb if you don't have much room. Semi-vining types of squash are a more compact fit in small gardens, if you don't want to construct a trellis, needing around 8 feet between each row. Winter squash is a warm-season, sun-loving vegetable, requiring high levels of phosphorous and potassium, and low levels of nitrogen to be at its best. Squash needs a soil temperature of at least 60 degrees F in order to germinate properly. Call the local extension service for the right soil pH needed for winter squash, as it differs greatly depending on where you live.