Compilation of Vertical Gardening Information

A Compilation of Vertical Gardening Information

by Denis M. Sweeney | June 14, 2011

Gardening? -What the What?!

I feel the need for a little preamble here, to explain how I got here, from my usual tech focus.
This spring, I started gardening a lot (well, for me), and I live in an urban area with a small back yard. Also relevant here; I rent, so anything I do, needs to be non-permanent/ movable. I got several fruit trees from a local nursery and have transplanted them into larger pots; some with wheels, and started to realize, that it would be a good use of space to go up, vertically to keep some deck-space, and also for maximum visual impact.
While I did grow up in a rural area; on a farm, I am no professional when it comes to gardening. I am an amateur gardener, and complete noob, so I started reading on the Internet about gardening.

What the Heck is Vertical Gardening?

Living Wall

Vertical Garden

I found, in researching this topic, that there are 2 similar topics, referred to by 2 different terms: Living Wall, and Vertical Garden. I'm sure some with bristle at this, but I am going to use the terms interchangeably. If I had to guess, I would say that a living wall is a larger, more permanent undertaking, that requires much more planning and effort. But both living walls and vertical gardens can and do employ some of the same skills, techniques and supplies.


Your goals may be different, but my driving force in this project is maximum bang for my dollar. I don't mind getting my hands dirty and/or picking up a saw and screw gun to save some money. Nor am I adverse to recycling some materials, within reason. I do want this to look great when complete, and not have jagged edges or rusty bits poking out. As a renter, the vertical garden solutions seem to be much more suited to me.

The article that best met my needs is one by Life On The Balcony, that gives step-by-step directions for converting a shipping pallet into a vertical garden. Some of the other links (below) have some simple fountain garden drip-irrigation systems that would be a perfect addition to this project. --Another thing that occurred to me after reading this great article, is that the "after" photo included, is what it looks like right after the project is complete. -Don't get me wrong, it looks great. But I noticed small-print on Sunset Magazine's projects that says things like "plantings will look like this after about six months", so I expect that the pallet vertical garden will grow into this container, over-taking it, obscuring the materials and looking even better!

Where Can I Get Vertical Gardening Kits/ Supplies

When I was reading about various ways of achieving a vertical garden, I noticed that a lot of what I was reading/videos I was watching didn't list/tell where to get the pre-made systems, or even what to search on to find them. With that in mind, I have included several suppliers of different systems. The least expensive new system, is the Wooly Pocket, which starts around $35, and goes up in size and cost from there. More suppliers are listed below:

Where to Buy a Living Wall/ Living Wall Supplies

Purchase Living Wall Kits from Urban Zeal

Supplier: Wooly Pocket

Supplier: Flora Grubb

Do It Yourself Projects

Here are some related DIY projects you may find interesting:

DIY Vertical Garden
DIY: Garden Hanging Baskets
DIY Pallet Vertical Garden
DIY Vertical Garden google search results
DIY Vertical Garden
DIY hanging gutter garden

DIY: Garden Projects on Make Magazine

DIY: Hydroponic Veggie Garden -Make Magazine

More Info

Living Walls
Mobile Plant Screen

keywords: Patrick Blanc, vertical garden, Fytogreen, GSky Plant Systems, longwood vertical garden, mobile, apartment, plants, indoor, garden, wall garden, living wall, urban gardening, floraframe, florafelt, wooly wall, wally living wall