Ever since we moved we've been dying to plant a vertical garden on our bathroom wall. It's large, needs some pattern (or something) and gets bathed in light every afternoon for hours. Now that spring is in full effect we're ready to move forward and just need to choose between a couple of techniques.
1. Flora Grubb announced on her blog today that vertical gardening panels are available for order through their website. The system is modular so you can make it as large or small as you'd like and then you can frame it out to hide the black sides. This is easy because you just need to pick your plants and fill it up, the watering and irrigation paths are built in so you just need to assemble correctly, plant and enjoy. And for more info on planting a vertical garden check out Michelle Kaufman's Tutorial on using panels.
2. If you want to go a more dramatic route, you can look into Woolly Pockets which have larger pockets for planting bigger plants like ferns and begonias (Image #3). They're made of fabric that breathes so you won't get mold or mildew building up in the pockets or on your walls. PLus you can hang them as a partition in a large space like a loft!
3. The DIY route via Sunset Magazine's vertical succulent garden seems easy enough if you have the time to put into it. Plus you can decide exactly how big or small you want to go from the start.
4. If you're looking for something really large scale, check out Sunset's post on outdoor vertical gardens.
It's important to remember if you're planting a garden indoors to match the plants you're using to the light where you're putting them. Don't plant a vertical succulent garden and put it in the darkest corner of the house! Here are 9 inspiring Vertical Gardens.
Has anyone built an indoor Vertical Garden? Share pics and links in the comments!
Images: 1-3 Flora Grubb, 4 Thomas J Story for Sunset Magazine)
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this gets filed in the 'things I'd love to do, but know I'd fail at' category lol...
*drool* I would totally love to do this. INSIDE. I may actually do this inside....I'm running out of floor and surface space for plants, and everytime I shop somewhere there is fresh foliage, I can almost HEAR the plants crying, "Please, take me home!" ;)
I saw a vertical garden featured on Martha Stewart a few weeks ago and have been obsessed ever since. I really love this idea because it's one way to display plants out of my cat's reach.
God I love that Flora Grubb nursery. By far my favorite garden store yet... time to move to SF!
The Floral Grubb panels are lovely and I would love to buy some, but they are expensive!
Gardeners.com used to sell them for $59.99 but they are no longer available :-(
I've been happy with this panel wall garden. DodieGoldney It makes a mess indoors, Its also very hard to water - succulents are a bit of a catch22. They need to dry out between waterings but the soil they ship with the unit is hydrophilic when its moist but hydrophobic when its bone dry. Pouring water on down the unit when its dry just results in lots of runoff and not much absorption. if you keep soil moist then it soaks up water like a peat bog and rots your plants, (theres gel in the soil mix). I'm experimenting with quick growing annuals this spring.
I'm thinking I'd like this on my balconies, more than indoors.
I've had this same image in my "DESIGN" folder for months now... I absolutely love this idea, but haven't gotten around to doing this project. Its actually amazing how many little plants you need to fill up even a small frame!
http://www.mydesigndreams.com
Oh, joeshack, that's a bummer. I guess my carpet won't like that.
this is awesome! my friend wants to do one after having her wedding at Smogg Shoppe. I'm sure she'll see this article (hi, Kristen!)
wish this were possible in Chicago...
http://mylittleapartment.blogspot.com/
In the Sunset example, does anyone know why the corrugated plastic is needed? Is it just to maintain a rigid structure to the wall or for some other plant-related reason? Any ideas? I'd like to make something like this, but I'd prefer to not bother with the plastic unless I really need to.
I *LOVE* how vertical gardens look. I'd like to wrap my house's exterior in them. :-D
LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!
Does anyone know how much it costs to fill that sucker with all of those beautiful tiny succulents?
jeff, you can often find inexpensive succulents at IKEA in the garden section (some of them are only $1). or Trader Joes!
To greenbayou,
The corrugated board is for structure and for water proofing.
Some DIY options are shade cloth plus rockwool, marine ply plus shoddy felt, VGM panels or Gro-Wall.
Lushe
http://www.lushe.com.au
At the recent SanFrancisco Garden Show, I purchased a vertical garden for my London home from a small company called Vertical Gardens, LLC. The call them Living Tapestries. I used it to cover up an ugly retaining wall. The results are wonderful! It’s like having my own Patrick Blanc greenwall! Very easy to set up and maintain thanks to the automatic watering system. I think they are at http://www.vertical-gardens.net. Might be helpful for someone.