Vertical gardens are a great solution for adding plants while minimizing clutter in a confined area. Great for city apartments and small yards, they enable you to grow plants vertically, not horizontally. That’s attractive to city-dwellers in search of nature, turning walls, balconies, and patios into green oases. They filter air too, insulate, and provide easy access to herbs or vegetables.
Where things start to get interesting with vertical gardens is the almost unlimited customization factors. You don’t have to have a big budget or flash equipment — just creativity, a little forethought, and the right plants. Even if you’re weighing investments or loans for home improvements, understanding your DSCR (Debt Service Coverage Ratio) can help you manage your budget wisely, so that a living wall system fits snugly with your budget. In the following chapters, we share the most important considerations for creating and maintaining a vertical garden, from the standpoint of real-life practicality for small areas.
Rethinking Space: Turning Walls and Corners into Growing Zones
It’s easy, when you’re short on square footage, to believe that you lack any options for adding greenery. But vertical gardens flip that idea on its head. While they enable you to take advantage of would-be wasted walls, fences, balcony railings, and odd corners, turning them into living, growing entities. Instead of covering the floor with plants, you pile them up the wall like books, a spreading, ruffled wing of foliage that fills a room without taking up much space.
Trailing ivy or flowering vines can make a Decent Garden in a very short time, turning a blank fence or garage wall into another element of the garden itself. Indoor, small apartment or otherwise, there’s room for a vertical herb garden on the kitchen backsplash. A few planters on a wall-mounted frame or in a hanging shoe organizer with pockets can turn a boring corner into a pocket of oasis.
It’s where corners go to die. But they can also be beautiful green columns with some creativity. Consider tiered towers or wraparound frames that scale, from the floor to ceiling, pulling the eye upward and providing the illusion of more room. This is not just about adding plants — it’s about adding a sense of height, movement, and in some cases, calm in places where space may otherwise feel limited. If you’re not sure where to begin, try some of these popular vertical gardening locations:
- Bare walls that get enough sunlight, inside or outside
- Fences and balcony railings that are otherwise unused
- Kitchen backslashes or pantry walls for growing herbs
- Narrow corners that could use a splash of life
- Staircase walls that often go unnoticed
Vertical gardening doesn’t have to be about constriction – it can be about reimagining. Simply begin looking at your space from a vertical perspective and the options can expand quickly.
Choosing the Right Plants for Vertical Gardening
Not every plant is suitable for a vertical garden. Choose plants that thrive in the compacted soil, that are non-prostrate growing or trailing, and that take to drought. Succulents are low-maintenance and simply spectacular, adorning a sunny wall in green. For overhangs or other shady areas, choose textures like ferns, philodendrons, or hostas that don’t need much light to thrive.
Herbs like basil, thyme, and mint are also of a scale, swift growth, and usefulness indoors. Tuck in some trailing plants, like string of pearls or ivy, to add decoration. Consider the weight of the soil, water, and plants; the lighter, the better, when it comes to hanging systems. Shallow-rooted plants are less work. Select plants that have complementary growth and colors for a beautiful design.
DIY vs. Ready-Made Systems: What Works for Your Space and Budget
This is the beauty of what the idea of vertical gardening offers. If you’re handy and enjoy making things, you can make your rig out of materials you probably already have. If, on the other hand, you do not want to make a hole in the wall, there are plenty of systems you can buy that can operate in almost any configuration. The only question now is, which one works best for your lifestyle, price point, and goals?
If you’re the type who likes something a little more specialized, DIY is fine. Wooden pallets, plastic bottles, hanging shoe organizers, even old gutters can serve as creative plantscapes. That work is often less expensive, and it lets you configure the layout any way you choose. And if your space is oddly configured, or light is lacking in it, a DIY system lets you design around that.
But DIY does have trade-offs. You’ll need tools, time, and perhaps a bit of patience to get everything perfect. If you don’t like building things, a pre-built may be the way to go. They come in all forms — modular panels, tiered towers, stacking pots — and are usually simple to set up, if time-consuming in the initial days. Some are even built with irrigation systems, so you can save time and water over the long term.
Budget also plays a big role. Although DIY can appear to be more cost-effective at the outset, the materials may stack up. A well-made off-the-shelf system may be more expensive up front, but could last longer and require fewer repairs. Then ask yourself if you’re in the market for something fast and temporary or something long-term and durable.
There’s no correct answer here — simply what seems to work best for you. Whether it is handmade or bought in a store, it has to fit the space and make you want to grow more.
