Vertical gardens save space and green up boring walls. They are used both indoors and outdoors. Professional models have a sophisticated irrigation system, but unfortunately they are quite expensive and consume a lot of water. It is cheaper if you build the vertical garden yourself. In the following we explain three different options of different levels of difficulty.
PVC pipes can be used in a variety of ways to build your own vertical garden
Which plants for the vertical garden?
If you want less work, you should choose plants for your vertical garden that need little water, such as succulents. However, these grow very slowly, so that a densely overgrown green wall is unlikely to emerge. But if that's your goal, consider using larger plants that will quickly cover up gaps, such as ferns. Climbing plants are also ideal. Flowering perennials and herbs are often used outdoors, while spider plants and ferns come into play indoors. It is also conceivable to create an edible vertical garden, e.g. with vegetables or fruit. More about that here.
Alternative vertical garden ideas
A vertical garden does not have to cost a lot of money. Often homemade solutions look much more attractive. Here are a few suggestions on how to easily make a vertical garden yourself:
- Cut holes in a long PVC tube, fill it with soil, stand it upright and place plants in the openings. (explained below)
- Stack flower pots of different sizes on top of each other to create a kind of staircase.
- Put plants in cans and jars and hang them on the wall.
- Cut the PVC pipes lengthways and plant. (explained below)
- Plant shoe rack.
- Plant plant bags or shoe bags.
- Place flower pots with hanging plants on ladders.
- Make a vertical garden from Euro pallets. You can find instructions on how to do this here.
PVC pipe vertical garden
In this guide we explain how to make a vertical garden out of a single PVC pipe by cutting openings in this pipe and planting them. The PVC pipe is placed vertically.
Tool and material list
- PVC pipe
- Flex
- heat gun
- Earth
- plant
- tape measure
- Edding for marking
- glass bottle
Measure
Depending on the length, you can make six or more cuts in your PVC pipe, which you then plant. A good six openings can be cut in a 0.5 meter long pipe.
Measure 15cm from the edge and mark this with a permanent marker on both opposite sides of the tube.
To cut
At the marked point, saw a strip about 10 cm wide on both opposite sides.
Heat and bulge
Heat the area around the strip until you can bend the PVC. Then insert the glass bottle into the slot and bulge the PVC outwards. Repeat the process on the other side.
next cuts
Then mark the next cut - not directly above the previous cuts but in between so the openings are offset. Repeat the heating and bulging process.
Mark the last two 15cm higher - offset again - heat and dent.
Now fill your PVC tube with soil and place small plants in the openings.
tips
Instead of drilling, you can place the cans and jars (and also flower pots) on different wide shelves that you mount one above the other on the wall.