How To Make A Do It Yourself Vertical Garden

 

The Vertical Tube Method

These kinds of planters use your average pot as a base, and then you make a tube structure which stands vertically in the pot, with plants growing out the sides. This could be as simple as a long, wide piece of drainpipe with lots of holes cut in it, filled with soil and standing upright… but that involves pipe-cutting tools not everyone has access to.

 

Another simple method that works well uses bamboo canes stood upright and joined together with rings to make a tube. The materials you’ll need for this method are: a pot, four wooden sticks (it doesn’t have to be bamboo– any wood is fine), a strong yet flexible wire, gardening net, twine, soil, and plants. The length of the wooden sticks depends on how high you want the planter to go, but a yard or meter might be a good starting point.

 

 

The four sticks need to be standing vertically in the pot in order to form the main structure. Make circles from your flexible material, and then tie them to the sticks with twine, starting at the bottom and spaced apart along the length of the sticks to form a tube that sits in your pot. To make the circles stay in place more easily, carve divots into the sticks that the circles can slot into.

 

Next, roll the gardening net up to the same width as the tube, and then sew it up to make a sock that will sit inside it. Place your wooden structure with the net tube inside your pot, and start filling it up with soil. Pack it tightly into the pot and around the bottom first to make sure the planter won’t fall, then down the center into the gardening net. Now you can make small cuts in the net from the outside, and place your plants into the soil.

 

The Picture Frame Method

This method is very popular, as it creates a kind of living picture in a frame. For this method you will need some planks of wood, nails and screws, wire hardware cloth, soil and plants.

First, you’ll want to make your main frame base. Again, size is a matter of  personal preference, but you want to make this part deep enough to hold the plants in (around 4 inches is fine). Nail your frame together, and then nail more planks across and down the back of your frame to create a kind of tray. Some gardeners use landscape fabric to cover the backs of their frames, with just a couple of planks across to give it more structure.

Next, cut out enough wire cloth to cover the front of the box and staple it over, enclosing the back of the frame. You can add more planks around the sides to cover the sections you’ve attached the wire to, add extra support, and make it look more like picture frame. It’s also a good idea to coat the wood in some kind of lacquered finish, to ensure it stays in good condition if you’re hanging it outside.

 

Once the wood is dry, pour your soil in through the wire, pack it tight, and add your plants. But be careful: If you hang it immediately, the soil might come out the front of the frame. Make sure you place plants close together and then leave them to grow for a little while to form strong root systems, then the soil should stay intact.