Over the past few months, the landscaping outside of my apartment has been torn out and replaced. Unfortunately, this included taking out a couple of big trees that provided wonderful shade from the morning sun. This was especially key in the hot, intensely sunny summer months. Curtains help, but I know that blocking the sun before it hits the glass is crucial to keeping the apartment cool. As I previously mentioned, I had a grand vertical garden plan that I started seeds for awhile back. Today I'm showing you what I did and how easily you can do it. Read on!
If you are so inspired to plant your own vertical garden (great for small spaces), it's definitely not too late to start some seeds indoors, especially for areas of the country with mid to late frost dates. (find your climate zone here). Vertical gardens are great My garden contains flowers (nasturium, poppies, forget-me-nots, marigolds), herbs (basil, oregano), and spinach. I picked plants that were relatively small since they only have a shoe-pocket's worth of dirt and so they wouldn't get really tall and block those above them. Besides liking how they look, I chose marigolds because they deter common garden pests.Here's the how to:
1. Find a canvas over the door shoe organizer. I found this one at Target for about $13. It has 24 pockets
2. Pick some seeds you like and start them indoors. Think about how much sun your plants will get (full sun, part sun, or shade) and choose plants accordingly. Also consider size, color, what herbs you like to cook with, etc. I've found that seed starting trays with pellets work really well, and then you can just plant the whole pellet+seedling without disturbing any delicate roots.
3. Once your seedlings are about 3 inches tall, they are ready to transplant. Hang up the organizer, fill the pockets with most of the way with potting soil, place you plants, fill in around your seedlings with more soil, and water.
That's it! super easy! Just make sure you don't forget to water the little guys in a regular basis, and pretty soon you'll have happy flowers.
I look forward to seeing another photo in a month and two months as the plants mature and drape over and fill out. Very innovative idea!!!!
ReplyDeletecool idea... it could even be a recycling earth day thing!
ReplyDeletereally beautiful idea! but i wonder what do you do about drainage? do you just put a pail under the shoe organizer? or does the canvas retain the water if so that is an awesome idea!
ReplyDeletehi! The canvas does retain some water, and each row drains into the row below, but I had this outside where it was ok to drain out the bottom.
ReplyDeleteThe other option is to place a long, low traditional planter underneath the vertical planter and use that to catch all the drainage.
I hope you try it!
AWESOME!!! This would be perfect for an herb garden. Yup, I'm gonna do this one!! Thanks for posting it. :)
ReplyDeletean herb garden should work beautifully! Happy planting!!
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