I’ve always loved the “idea” of gardening, but never really put too much effort into it until we bought our first home. We had over a year’s worth of renovations to make to it, all of which were exciting and turned out amazing, but I have to admit my favorite part was at the end. Landscaping. It was finally my turn to make the house pretty and give it some curb appeal.
Problem is, we have very limited space. Our lot size is super small (as in less than 1500sf INCLUDING our house!!) so while I would have loved to build a traditional garden in one corner, we would have lost valuable play area for our son.
So I had to get creative.
How in the world am I going to have flower beds and a large variety of fruits and vegetables without being able to use any yard square footage or ground space at all?!?!
Vertical Gardening DIY
Well for space-saving flower beds, I asked Ben to make some built-in flower boxes along the edge of our front deck/patio.
This actually served two purposes. First is a place for me to plant flowers. Second, it is a raised patio/deck and I hated that you could see the dirt and junk underneath. So the beds actually provide a cover-up for this as well!
You can see in the second pic above, the side of the deck is still exposed and initially, I had an Earthbox stand here. But I didn’t care for the way this looks so I went with the box option instead!
You can see in the pic above to the right how the snapdragons have grown in nicely! My tomatoes have also really done well in the Earthbox and this is how they look now…
So this took care of one portion of my garden and also my need for beautiful flowers around the house. This solution, as you can see, took up very little space and actually left 100% of the rest of the yard free for “play” area.
With this portion done, my next project was for fruits and veggies. For these I decided to use any and all vertical space available to me and use my fence as the planting area with fence railing planters.
I really liked this idea because it keeps my edible plants off the ground – away from harm from bugs, animals, my kid and the lawn mower. I think it looks awful pretty too :)
This even works really well for strawberries. When the plants start to shoot off looking to start new plants, they hang off the sides and when they are long enough, I place them in the planter next to it.
I also discovered these really awesome vertical garden pocket planters. Designed for hanging on walls, I went ahead and adapted it to hang on my fence with the help of some zip ties.
They come in all sorts of colors and are really affordable. A word of advice though, be sure to choose larger/deep pockets if you’d like to grow lettuce or strawberries.
These tend to dry out quickly so the only thing that really survives and thrives in the small pocket versions are succulents.
If you’re looking to create a stunning vertical garden, a long rectangular planter from Flower Window Boxes would be a great choice as well. Visit their website for vertical garden inspiration and to browse their selection of high-quality planters.
I also really loved the way an arbor looks at the gate of a picket fence so I asked Ben to put one up for me.
This provided the perfect means to grow blackberries…
and grapes!
You’d think this was the end of it, but I actually had one more spot that was perfect to grow some more herbs and vegetables – my kitchen window!
This one might be my favorite, because it’s super easy access for harvesting as well as for watering.
So what do you guys think? I have managed to create a full fruit and vegetable garden plus flower beds all by taking up ZERO ground space.
Very cool! I’ve always wanted a green thumb…maybe I could start with an herb garden? Although not too sure where I’d put it. I live in Destin, FL and am surrounded by sand but not much sun (at my home, anyway!) :)
What great ways to display plants? These are especially great when planting in a back yard is out of the question. I love, love these ideas!!
These are such fabulous ideas! I love the idea of vertical gardening and had actually hoped to try it out this year, but no such luck. Maybe next year though!
I love it. My wife loves to garden, and I am going to show her show her your post with all your great ideas.
Thanks! I hope it provides some inspiration for her. I look at it every day and smile :)
Very beautiful and love the ideas