How to Make Easy, Unique Vertical Garden Gifts

DIY Framed Vertical Garden
DIY Framed Vertical Garden

Do you want to make a unique, homemade gift for a friend? Succulent gardens have that hand-crafted look, yet they don’t require lots of skill. In fact, you can simply buy a frame, soil and some succulent plants.

Vertical gardens can be great gifts for virtually anyone. They can be used as decor in homes and offices, they can be filled with herbs for a living herb garden, they can be grown inside or outside and they even make a fun craft project for kids.

3 Ways to Make a Vertical Garden Gift:

8-Pack of Succulents for Making a Framed Vertical Garden

This first option is to buy a pre-made vertical garden frame that is ready to be filled with plants and soil. The is the easiest way to make your vertical garden, and depending on the size of the kit, they aren’t necessarily expensive.

The second option is to build the frame yourself. The video below shows you how. It’s pretty basic, but you will need some tools, including a saw, drill, sandpaper and some screws. You will also want to stain or paint your frame to protect the wood from any moisture (and of course to look nice). If you want a natural-looking frame, simply get a clear varnish.

DIY Vertical Garden Frame

The third option is to make a few tweeks to the above “make-it-yourself” option to cut your costs even more (and maybe use some materials that you already have laying around the house – which is what I did).

How I Saved Money on Vertical Garden Materials:

I had some wood scraps leftover from a fence project and some bird netting (also called polypropylene mesh if you’re shopping for it) from my vegetable garden that I figured I would use. Instead of building the planter box behind the frame with wood, I thought I would try using one of those foil banking pans instead.

Besides being less work to build and fewer materials to buy, the foil is significantly lighter in weight. I also decided to use a perlite and sphagnum moss soil mixture that is also lightweight. When completed, I think my entire 18″ x 19″ vertical garden frame and planter weighs less than 5 pounds (and that includes soil and plants too).

Note: It’s not necessary to lighten the load of your garden. Smaller-sized planters aren’t heavy anyway. However, it’s a nice option in case you are interested.

Although most of my materials were free because I already had them, here’s what it would have cost if I had to buy everything:

  • Wood Fence Picket (6′ x 5 1/2″) $1.75
  • Metal Brackets with Screws $1.75
  • Sphagnum Peat Moss $4.50
  • 2 (8″ x 8″ x 1 1/2″) Foil Pans $1
  • Roll of Gutter Guard $4 or Hardware Cloth $6.50
  • Succulent Plants $10-12 (or less)

5 Steps to Making a Framed Garden:

1. I started by measuring the wood frame pieces to fit around the foil pan. By the way, I ended up using 2 foil pans stacked inside each other for extra sturdiness for the planter (they were sold in packs of 2 anyway, so it didn’t cost me any more money). I got the 2-pack of 8″ x 8″ pans at Dollar Tree for $1. They are about 1 1/2″ deep, which is perfect to hold enough soil for succulents while also being compact.

2. Next, I cut, sanded and stained the frame. I attached the 4 sides together with small flat metal brackets I bought at Walmart for less than $2.

DIY Vertical Garden Back Side

3. Next, I cut a piece of netting and stapled it to the back side of the frame. You could also use wire mesh hardware cloth, gutter guard screen, chicken wire or weed fabric instead.

4. Then, I stapled the foil pans to the back of the frame on top of the netting I had just attached. The foil pans were really easy to work with because they are pliable and can be shaped right where you want to staple them (even if you don’t measure your frame exactly right).

Notice in the photo that I bend one side of the foil inward. This will be the bottom side when the planter is handing upright. The folded side will help catch and keep in any excess water so that it won’t drain right out. If you use succulents like I did or other plants that don’t require lots of water, this probably will not be an issue – it’s *just in case*.

5. Last, I poured the moss and perlite soil mixture into the pan through the holes in the netting. By the way, my starters were small enough that I didn’t need to cut any holes in the net. This is a nice advantage to using smaller plants.

DIY Framed Vertical Garden

As far as buying succulents, you can get a bunch of starters or get larger plants and take multiple cuttings off one plant. Succulent cuttings are easy to propagate, but keep in mind that they can take a few weeks to grow roots, which of course will keep them from falling out of the garden.

In my case, I was gifting my vertical succulent planter to myself, so I could wait weeks for the cuttings to root before I hang my planter on a wall. That’s why you see so many smaller cuttings rather than larger blooms.

I really like how my garden turned out. The fence panel scraps were the perfect size (5 1/5″ wide and 1/2 thick) so that they make the garden appear large without having to buy lots of plants, and they are thin enough that they don’t add a lot of weight to the frame.



DIY Vertical Garden with Plywood + Plastic Bottles

herb garden
Plywood Vertical Garden with Plastic Bottles
courtesy of https://www.home-dzine.co.za

Do you like building stuff in your yard?

Check out this super simple (and cool) plywood vertical garden. You might even be able to make it using materials you already have and just recycle them!

When I saw this home-made vertical garden, I was impressed because of its simplicity – yet it looked very functional and easy-to-make. As you can see, it’s basically made with a piece of plywood and cut-up plastic soda bottles. Brilliant!

What a great idea to use as a vertical herb garden – but there’s no reason why you couldn’t plant regular plants like annuals, perennials or plain old greenery. Plants that grow big and bushy can hide the plastic bottle planters completely (ie spider plants), and if you paint the plywood backing, people might never even notice that your unique living wall garden is homemade…

Even though this planter has a single column of 5 growing containers, there is no reason why you couldn’t take this concept and use a wider with several columns and rows of plants. Now that could be a really gigantic herb garden that requires no backyard.

Another idea is to make this an indoor vertical garden similar to the indoor pocket planter idea, but handcrafted. The instructions below include the soda bottles without the caps, allowing for drainage. However, if your plants don’t require drainage and you’d like to hang your garden indoors, you could always leave the caps on…

Materials Needed:

  • A piece of plywood cut to the size you want
  • Empty 2-liter plastic bottles (water bottles, soda bottles, whatever)
  • Small screws or tacks
  • Weed fabric of netting
  • Potting soil and plants

Optional:

  • Sandpaper (if you want to sand the wood)
  • Paint or stain (if you want to paint or stain the wood)
  • Picture hooks and concrete nails (if you want to hang your planter on a wall)

As you can see, you don’t need many materials, and some of them you might already have. You don’t even have to hang your garden – as plywood can easily be leaned up against a wall or sturdy fence.

5 Steps to Make Your Homemade Vertical Garden:

1. The first step is to prepare your wood back frame by cutting, sanding and staining/painting it. Add the picture hooks as well and test out where you want to position your vertical garden.

2. Second, cut off the top third or half of the plastic bottles to be used to hold your plants. Scissors work fine, or you can use a utility knife too. The size you make your planters will depend mainly on the size of your plants – and how much space they need for their roots.

3. Third, fasten the newly-cut bottle planters to the plywood back using the screws or tacks. One screw will work fine, but using 2 will make it more secure and hold the containers in place better.

4. Fourth, cut a small square (or circle) of weed fabric or netting to cover the base of the bottle. I’d say about 4″ x 4″ would work fine. This will prevent soil from falling out the bottom of the bottle planters.

5. Fifth, fill the bottles with soil and plants, leaving a small space at the top so that water doesn’t automatically overflow when the plants are watered. Say a 1/2 inch or so.

That’s it! Of course, if you want to make your planter larger or more fancy, go for it! You can even make multiple columns and position them side-by-side along a wall to create a sophisticated stylish design.