Texas goat farmer Lisa Seger needed more garden space but not another 4-by-8 or 4-by-12 bed, so she filled an old filing cabinet with soil and grew herbs in its drawers

Not every garden needs a backyard, and Lisa Seger's story shows it in a pretty unexpected way. According to the Houston Chronicle, Seger, who lives with her husband and more than 30 goats on 10 acres near Waller, Texas, is a goat farmer and cheese maker. Their actual yard space is small because her goats need most of the land for grazing. So instead of building another raised bed, she filled the drawers of an old metal filing cabinet with soil and grew herbs in it. It’s a small story, but it shows how little space you really need to garden.

The space problem most young renters know about

Seger wanted more variety in her garden, but didn't want to add more raised beds. She wanted something visually interesting, and a way to grow more without having to build another 4-by-8 or 4-by-12 raised bed. So instead she experimented with what she had lying around. It's a dilemma plenty of people can relate to, goats or no goats: a small rental with no yard, no raised beds, and no obvious place to dig


From filing cabinet to hanging teapots

Seger dragged the filing cabinet out into the garden and filled its open drawers with dirt. It worked for years until the metal finally rusted through. And when it did, Seger didn’t quit. She constructed a little fence out of hog-wire paneling and hung thrift-store cups, a coffee pot, a kettle, and other containers from it, drilling drainage holes in each before filling them with soil and transplants.

This approach has a name: Vertical gardening

Whether she knew it or not, Seger was part of a bigger trend called vertical gardening: growing plants up on walls and fences and in containers instead of spreading them out on the ground. Ken Cousino, owner of Quality Feed and Garden in Houston's Heights neighborhood, described it as a real movement among urbanites planting high-density gardens in small spaces. He has watched gardeners utilize fences, teepee frames, terra-cotta pots, sawed-off PVC pipes, old gutters, and even shoes filled with dirt.

Some are decorative, like an old chest of drawers overflowing with plants. Some are simply practical, like soda bottles cut open and mounted on a wall. Tower planters are tall strawberry pot shapes with pockets all around, and can hold dozens of plants in the footprint of a single barrel. Lay wood pallets on their side, line them with fabric, and you can create narrow trenches perfect for greens like lettuce, spinach, kale, and mustard. Trellises provide support for climbers like pole beans, peas, cucumbers, squash, and Malabar spinach. Some gardeners even grow watermelon and cantaloupe vertically, resting the fruit in slings as the vines climb.

None of this has to be complicated. Good potting soil that is lightweight, nutrient-rich, drains well, and is free of harsh synthetic additives is the real starting point, says Cousino, because that’s what allows roots to grow and plants to stay productive in a container.

Research explains why this trend is growing

Seger's approach is part of a much larger pattern. The National Gardening Association's report, Garden to Table: A 5-Year Look at Food Gardening in America, found the number of millennial food gardeners grew from 8 million in 2008 to 13 million in 2013, a 63 percent increase over five years. Thus, the trend of young adults growing their own food was well underway before it became a social media trend.

There is also a scientific argument for growing vertically, not just outward. Vertical growing methods are more efficient in their use of space, water, and light than traditional gardens, and they reduce the need for pesticides, according to a 2022 review by S. Oh and C. Lu, researchers in the Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology.

There is also a personal benefit. In a 2022 study in PLOS ONE, researchers tracked 32 healthy women between the ages of 26 and 49 for four weeks and divided them into gardening and art-class groups. The study found that while both groups said they felt better at the end, the gardening group also had definite improvements in symptoms of anxiety. None of them had gardened before. Lead researcher Charles Guy said working with plants can give healthy people a boost in wellbeing.

What you can get from a rusty filing cabinet

You don’t need a backyard, or Seger’s actual filing cabinet, to do something like that. An old drawer, a pallet, a fence, or a couple of hanging containers with drainage holes can go a long way to turn a bare wall or empty corner into a working garden. One of the easiest hobbies to get into is vertical gardening because it saves space, produces food, and seems to bring a sense of calm. Plus, you can start this weekend with things you probably already own, without waiting for a bigger house or yard.