With the shortage of space becoming more common than most of us would like it to be, vertical gardens – that have their beauty spread out vertically rather than horizontally – are becoming more and more popular.
In fact, if you visited your nearby nursery store or gardening store, you are most likely to find an entire section devoted to vertical gardening plants and supplies!
Now, as for the tools (trellis, planters, plant ’training’ equipment), plants(morning glory, wisteria, ivy, climbing roses, corn, bean, squash), seeds and the know-how – your store and the people there are sure to help you out.
Vertical Gardening Ideas
But to give you a head-start into planning your own vertical garden, here are a few design ideas to get your thought-factory going!
1. Incorporating trellises and encouraging your plants
The most obvious way to add a vertical element to your garden is by incorporating trellises and encouraging your plants to grow on them.
Here’s one that adds an interesting design element with its wood structure that is organic and adds an interesting vertical gardening touch.
2. Free-standing trellises
You can also use free-standing trellises somewhere in the garden and give it a green cover with your plants growing beautifully over it.
3. Use a pole to hang a lightweight planter
The alternative to using a trellis is to use a pole and to coax the plants to grow upwards around the pole. Alternately you can use a pole to hang a lightweight planter, as in this case with the red geraniums.
4. Use existing trees as central ‘pole’
Here’s another interesting twist to the pole idea – use existing trees as central ‘pole’. Creepers growing on trees give a touch of natural beauty to your outdoor garden – and it adds the wanted vertical touch.
5. Build such a trellised enclosed area
The above picture shows a garden that was grown for a wedding – and therefore the trellised enclosed area. But you can take the idea and incorporate it into tall white fences.
Alternately, if you have the space, you can build such a trellised enclosed area for a quite retreat surrounded by nature.
6. Interesting shaped trellises
Interesting shaped trellises, like this heart-shaped one with the pea creeper growing on it. But it’s best to start easy with simple designs, the more intricate the design, the tougher it will be to get your plant to grow ‘on’ it.
7. Incorporate a portico with the plants
This one is obviously for those with a lot of space. Right at the end of the driveway, and in front of the main door, you can incorporate a portico with the plants growing up the pillars as well as on the roof.
8. Simple crisscross wooden trellis against a simple brick wall
Unlike the free standing trellis, quite often people also create interesting trellises and attach them to walls.
This not only allows for vertical gardening, but also gives an old-world green makeover to your walls. In this case check out what you can do with a simple crisscross wooden trellis against a simple brick wall.
9. Wooden fence with metal support structures
This picture shows a wooden fence with metal support structures. Done right, as here, the plants can actual conceal the support structures and give a beautiful look to your wooden fence!
10. Incorporate pots and containers hanging on trellises
And of course, the quintessential hanging garden – These are usually seen quite a lot in balcony gardens.
But you can also incorporate pots and containers hanging on trellises into your normal garden and add an interesting ‘vertical’ element to an otherwise ‘horizontal’ garden.
Hopefully, you’ve gone into full plan mode now and that you’ve got your schematic sketch-pad out and started taking notes.
But make sure you work out the place you have, give it a good thought about what is realistic and what isn’t (in that space) and then, by all means, get gardening!