If you don’t have a lot of horizontal space and yet want to have your own garden, try vertical gardening. Great to look at, these vertical gardens also do a good job of covering an unattractive wall. Any wall will do, and unless you have a very big project in mind, you don’t need to worry about weight load.
Select the space you wish to use and get started by building a frame; you will need a good, solid structure, which can be hung onto the wall. The basic structure of a vertical garden wall is a three-layer sandwich made of frame, plastic sheeting, and fabric. Building a frame to hang on the wall will make taking it down much easier. The plastic sheet keeps the water off the wall. An interior landscaping specialist could install the whole wall or you could simply buy DIY vertical gardening kits with wall mounted water reservoir and everything you need for a fully functioning self-watering vertical garden.
There are many different varieties of vertical gardens to choose from. One easy option is a container-style garden, where potted plants are attached to a wall or displayed in rows, or where you simply stack the planters. You could also have a stand-alone wall built by affixing hex wire netting to a cedar frame. It can accommodate up to 30 small terra-cotta pots. If you prefer a clean, minimalist look, stacked cedar boxes or wooden crates attached to the side of your home make for a striking vertical garden.
A vertical garden can go just about anywhere – indoors or outdoors. What plants you should choose would depend upon the wall you pick and how much sunlight it receives. However, if you’d like to try particular plants, then choose a wall that will provide the best growing conditions for them.
If your budget for a vertical garden is small, you could even upcycle an old dresser instead of throwing it out. Place it outside, fill it will soil, place the planters in them and stagger the way the drawers are pulled out in order to give a cascading effect. For a decidedly simple project, neatly stack pots on the rungs of a ladder. For a bit more flourish, add a hook for a hanging planter.
Green installations have a design lifespan. Manage and replace the hardware and the plants from time to time but, all in all, vertical planting is an excellent use of space and can substantially increase the planting area in and around your home.