DIY Vertical Garden

Not my normal topic, but why not turn a garden into the artwork, it’ll naturally be picture perfect.

This is my first attempt at a vertical garden and as I found it so difficult to get all the information on how to do it.  I have decided to share what I have put together. Watch this space as my garden grows.

My first thoughts were to plant a huge succulent wall garden but as this became a bigger project than originally planned I scaled down to a herb/lettuce vertical wall in a much smaller space.  You may notice a couple size and plant changes in the pictures but the photo's remain a relevant guide.

1. Plant your seedlings, if you wish to pre-establish them

I created my own pots from old newspapers to plant up cuttings and seedlings.  I had hoped these would grow whilst I put together the pieces for the wall garden, but with a hot summer, I timed this wrong and many of my plantings died. Pic 1

With my choice of mesh size use small seedling, tube stock and seeds.  Increase the mesh square size and then you could increase the pot size planted.

2. Plan the size of your boxes for your area and the mesh available

Know your space and calculate how many boxes you want to make for the space.  Keep them smaller as too big and they will be too heavy, difficult to hang, and harder to top up with soil or update your plants later on. Check also what best measures into your mesh sheet to reduce wastage.

3. Get all your tools & resources together

• Bolt cutters to cut the mesh
• Wire
• Galvanised arc mesh sheets (100x100mm)
• Pliers to twist the wire
• Geotextile (from landscapers or you could use shade cloth)
• Scissors
• Utility knife
• Piece of 100mm poly pipe with 1/3 of the profile cut about 150mm long(or a piece of cardboard)
• Box steel 15mm x 15mm
• Ramset Masonry Hooks
• Drill & Bits suitable to drill the steel and your wall
• Irrigation (this is dependent on your chosen plants and zone)

4. Build the boxes

My boxes are 500mm x 600mm using galvanised steal with 100mm x 100mm box. Using the bolt cutters cut your boxes.

For each box you will need to cut the mesh into these pieces

      2 of 500x600 (back & front)

      2 of 100x500 (sides)

      1 of 100x600 (bottom)

Using the wire and pliers join the pieces together to make a box with an opening at the top.

Cut the geotextile so that it fits into the box overlapping on itself sides and bottom so that soil cannot leak out.  Leaving some excess at the top to close off after filling the box with soil.

5. Fill the boxes with a light weight premium potting mix suited to your plants

Keeping the mix light will help with planting later and moving the boxes around.  I used a  1:3 ratio of perlite and  bio-dynamic  coco-peat.  Compact so that there are no holes and that all the corners are full.

6. Prepare the wall to hang your boxes

Here we placed the box steel onto the wall with the use of the masonry hooks.  The steel was placed around 12cm in from the boxes sides and the hooks set so that the mesh would hang from the top row of the mesh box.

7. Plant up your boxes

Lay the boxes down, making sure your soil doesn’t tip out from the top. Slit the geotextile with a sharp utility knife into half circle not cutting the bottom line off.

Now seed your box or plant your tube stock.

8. Hang your boxes

Get a friend to help you lift these boxes into place.  If you have more than one in a vertical line, work from the bottom up.

9. Irrigate

This is dependent on your plants.  We have run a 19mm poly pipe up the wall connecting to a soaker hose that has been laid along the top of the box. 

It may be worth looking at recycling the water that comes out at the bottom.  I will look into this for our boxes at a later date.

You are done, enjoy your garden grow.

Seedling pots made from newspaper

Lay a tarp below your work, you are bound to spill the soil mix

Using a piece of cut poly pipe assists keeping the soil in place if planting the box in a hanging position

Remove some of the soil to plant your tube stock

The steel was used to keep the watered boxes off the wall

Hanging from the bottom up

Cut half circles into the geotextile

First signs of my rocket seeds