Garden
How to make a vertical garden

How to make a vertical garden

Vertical gardens are not in trend for the first and certainly not for the last year. The reason is not only in the powerful impression that a flowerbed on the wall makes on the guests. On a small plot, a phytowall allows you to competently develop all the surfaces and save the maximum amount of land for, say, a vegetable garden. On a large area vertical garden can serve as a way of zoning. In short, from any angle look – solid advantages. We tell you how to make a phytowall with your own hands and where to place it in your garden.

What is a vertical garden?

In fact, this is a flowerbed on the wall, where plants are placed in special containers. Landscape designers distinguish four types of such structures:

  • Plant paintings on a metal or polymeric mesh, which, however, is not visible under the lush bushes, so the phytowall resembles a solid living panel.
  • “Carpet” vertical garden: plants are planted in special pockets on a textile fabric.
  • Modular garden: it is formed from a number of individual pots and containers. Then, depending on the type of plants, combine them into arbitrary compositions.
  • Garden on wooden supports. Wooden pallets or their more aesthetic analogues are used as the basis. The essence of the method is that the plants look through the cross bars. The roots of plants in the ground (the simplest example is grapes on a trellis).

Any type of phytowall is easy to implement with your own hands – further we will consider detailed instructions. But we suggest starting with the basics – the choice of plants and the specifics of care.

What plants are good for your phytowall?

Almost any kind. If you are going to plant them in individual containers, you can not even worry too much about the compatibility of individual species – the main thing is that each plant feels well in your climate.

If we are talking about plant paintings or a phytowall on wooden supports, it makes sense to experiment with mountain alpine, Altai and Caucasian herbs. Groundcover plants, mosses and succulents typical of the Japanese garden have a nice effect.

How to take care of a vertical garden

Plants are planted or in suitable soil, or in sphagnum moss (this moss – a real godsend for the gardener: it absorbs a lot of water, requires minimal maintenance, and also works as a natural insulator). In spring and autumn – feed with vitamins and fertilizers, and for the winter it is well insulated. During the flowering period, it is required in time to remove excess sprouts and inflorescences, which have already wilted.

Water the vertical garden by hand or with a drip system. Gardeners on forums share how to assemble such even with their own hands: fix a perforated tube above the phytowall (in it you will pour water), and below – a container for collecting excess moisture. But the aesthetics in this case obviously suffers.

vertical garden

Where to organize a phytowall

Vertical garden throughout the wall – an ideal scenario of landscaping: it is worth to see a couple of dozens of photos, as you want to immediately repeat the reception on your own dacha. Take your time: assess – do you have enough power to take care of the planting properly?

  • If you are a novice gardener or a dacha owner who does not have time to carefully care for the plants – try the option “on the fence” or mobile containers on the wall. Something that is easy to part with if a phytowall is “not your thing.”
  • If you are an experienced grower, permanently live on the plot or can invite a gardener to help: feel free to make large formats and designs – landscaping the entire wall.

Phytowall with their own hands step by step

Start with a small panel on the wall. This – a successful way to hide not the most sympathetic facade (phytowall of moss and plants distracts attention from the imperfections of the finishing), which also does not require much effort. To create such a phytowall with your own hands, stretch a wire mesh over the frame and line it with moss. Cover the back of the frame with a board and plant succulents through the mesh.

A composition of individual containers is also a kind of vertical garden. The plus side of this technique is that you can choose the most appropriate type of soil and fertilizer for each plant. Small pots will look good on the fence, and on the porch, and on a freestanding support (for example, if you want to zone the area). For planting, any plants that are well established in your region will do.

A garden on wooden supports can be used as an additional wall – for example, to surround a pergola with plants or to zone the area. It is important to understand that the greater the “number of pots” (i.e. the area of gardening), the more attention they require – calculate your time sensibly.

The role of a phytowall can be not only a flower bed or flowerbed: if the garden beds are occupied by cucumbers and onions, spicy herbs can be quite organized vertical garden.

Another example of the rational use of space – a vertical garden at the pool. True, for the purity of the water will have to watch “on both sides”: in the water will constantly fall wilted leaves and inflorescences.

Vertical garden with their own hands: recipes for beginners

The simplest kind of phytowall is a “pocket” vertical garden. Textile polymer canvas with sections can be bought in a garden store: the material is well permeable to water and at the same time strong enough to withstand the weight of the soil. Grasses look especially good in the pockets – you can plant one species or several, pick up plants of different shades.

Microcomposition by simple means

Do you already have a few potted plants? – Make a fancy hanging structure out of them by placing pots in one or more levels. To make such a vertical garden you need 6 round wooden slats, 6 flat wooden planks for mounting, metal hooks, ropes or sturdy cords and the potted plants themselves.

Make two holes in the boards to match the diameter of the round slats, insert the slats into them and secure them. Place pots between the slats and connect the three levels of the structure with a rope or string. Use hooks to hang the composition on the wall of the room, the fence or, say, under the ceiling of a summerhouse.

A vertical pallet garden

Remove every other crosswise board from the pallet and nail it to the other side of the base parallel to the rest – you should have a sort of double sided staircase. Fasten the “textile” between the boards with a slight sag. In the resulting pockets, fill the soil. Bury the plants. 

An alternative idea of a vertical garden with their own hands – from fancy pallets and flower pots. The pots are attached to the wood with semicircular metal brackets. Such a phytowall is suitable for beginner gardeners who are not confident in their ability to grow something and would prefer to buy ready-made plants in stores.

How to expressively beat vertical gardens and vegetable gardens with your own hands?

Any phytowall – a kind of art object, and this impression can easily be reinforced by the original containers. It can be either antique vases or old pots – the main thing is to fix them firmly on the wall or fence.

If you use cachepots, you can plant even heat-loving flowers, and in the winter to move his “street” vertical garden in the house. The price of a question – three kopecks; in addition, this vertical garden can increase to infinity – would be enough walls.

Hanging gardens are conventional, but very romantic analog of the phytowall. As a rule semicircular containers are attached to the horizontal support with chains, and the compositions with weeping forms look the best.

You can also go another way: to make an emphasis not on the variety of plants, but on bright containers: to provide for a simple vertical garden base, painted in one saturated shade, or even to color the wall, like a rainbow.

How to choose a pattern for a “serious” vertical garden

A phytowall for the “pro” level is, first of all, the choice of appropriate materials. To create an “ornament” with plants, landscape designers use … ready-made photos or drawings. Look at the photo above: the pattern of a vertical garden clearly resembles a mountain landscape.

The initial image is extremely simplified in a graphics editor, so that only the main lines and colors are left. Then in this conditional sketch to highlight the volume elements – they will later be planted with plants with large leaves or ampelous flowers. The background is divided by tones, selecting mosses or decorative grasses of the desired shade. During the entire vegetative period, the grasses will change color – the panel will turn out not only picturesque but also interactive.

When planning a phytomodule, remember: simple geometric techniques give an interesting visual effect. True, the composition on the basis of parallel lines or clear curves requires more attention: any shoot that went sideways, will spoil the impression of the verified geometry. This means that the wall will have to be trimmed with enviable regularity.

The effect of a vertical garden

No matter how you look at it, a phytowall, even created with your own hands, requires regular care and time. If you do not have a lot of it, and you come to the cottage to rest, the walls of the house and arbor in the garden can be decorated with ampelous (climbing) plants. With a minimum of care, the decorative effect – almost like a phytowall.

Leaders among the vertically growing plants – ivy and maiden vines. They grow quickly and permanently, and also require minimal care. The disadvantage of such landscaping is one: plants give adventitious roots, which can leave cracks in the plaster or even damage the wall. Therefore, it is best to plant them on a separate partition (as a zoning element for the garden) or to stretch a grid over the facade.

Perhaps the most exotic idea for true connoisseurs is a vertical bonsai or plant on a trellis. Almost any garden tree can be formed in this exotic way, the other question is that it is long and troublesome. The trunk and branches will have to be shaped from the earliest years and throughout almost the entire life of the shoot.