Vertical Gardening

I was given a small grant to explore and research vertical gardening in hoophouses because the space being a premium area with the covering and all. I started with the shading issues that were obvious. I knew the 12 noon sun couldn't penetrate each overhead bed. But the plants didn't seem to suffer much light deprivation as my hoophouse runs north to south and the sun rises on the east giving every plant a full half day on each side as it traverses over the sky giving plants all they needed. Beds are 2 feet wide and 30" apart. So with 3 beds I needed a ladder to maintain the top bed and decided it best to only build 2 tiers. And the one on the ground would always have the root plants, carrots, garlic and potatoes. The upper ones leafy greens and strawberries. It came out better than expected and gave me a little extra growing square footage to grow in.