What is a Varden?
Simply put, Varden is a living wall. The living wall, or vertical farm, is a growing strategy that we need more of in the city. It is space efficient, increases access to food, helps reduce food shortages, and is perfectly suited for urban residential settings. The designers from Vertical Garden Supply — former known as Verdtech — have really thought of making urban gardening accessible to the masses. You can grow everything from herbs, lettuce, spinach, kale, and even edible flowers on the Varden system.
According to the company, Vertical Garden Supply strives to increase food security, enable sustainable supplies of food without the middleman, and empower folks to take pleasure in growing their own fruits and veggies. Speaking with the company owner, Mark Woolbright, and hearing his story, I can tell he has really dedicated a lot of time and passion into knowing living walls — 25 years, no less. Let’s take a look at their endeavour and review their product to help you determine if the Varden is right for you. If not, I have covered other vertical farming options you can consider.
👍🏻 What are the benefits of the Varden?
- Modular. It is a modular product that is easy to install. Each section is 2′ wide and 3′ tall. They all clip together, so you can customize your build as you see fit.
- User-friendly. You don’t need much construction knowledge to know how to install this. With their YouTube channel and website, you can easily understand how to add this to your home garden. I’ve always been an advocate for soil, so if you like growing in dirt, you’ll enjoy this vertical farming method.
- Low maintenance. Due to ease of access, each area of the vertical system is easy to deal with. With any new system, there will always be a learning curve, but each part of the living wall is divided into 2′ sections, so if you need to change an area, you can remove it and replace it with a different component.
- High grade material. The plastic is designed to withstand the elements and will not change integrity from years of sun and water exposure.
Before and after Varden installation. 
Socks for planters. 
Make the holes for your plants. 
Structure for wall mount.
🏠 Can use the Varden to grow indoors?
Short answer, yes! Vertical Garden Supply offers an indoor Varden set that includes all the paraphernalia you need to successfully maintain an indoor vertical farm, such as a moisture barrier and LED grow lights. As you can see, this product goes up really well in exterior space, but with their frame racking system lets you install a free-standing Varden inside your house too.
If you want to convert your existing Varden for the indoors, that’s possible too! You would want to put something on the wall to protect it from moisture, from a simple plastic sheet to even corrugated plastic. Then you will need a basin or a trough to bring the extra water to your reservoir. A simple eavestrough for your home can be used for this purpose.
💧 How do you water the veggies in the Varden?
This living wall comes with a simple watering system, with a main line up one side and small run off on each row. Such an arrangement makes it simple to modify to the specific design that you need for your situation.
What is nice about this watering system is that it is also done from under the sock, so the moisture is absorbed by the roots through capillary action, which I have previously covered on FMC. The benefits of this watering strategy include:
- Watering during the day won’t damage the leaves above the soil.
- With a small reservoir on the bottom of the holder, water can absorb into the sock.
- The main hose can be set up to a hose or a pump in a water reservoir.
📍 Where can I put my Varden?
The rule of thumb I give my clients when it comes to installing a vertical farm is, as long as the wall can hold up the weight of the system, you can put it there. Some suggested locations I would offer city dwellers include:
- Balconies
- Sunny brick walls
- Indoors, with some grow lights
Updated August 17, 2021. Originally published March 25, 2020.
