The vertical gardening is nothing new and It has been practiced in urban environments for many years with vegetable facades in buildings, which, due to their attractiveness, modern, has transcended a penchant for having a vertical garden ( living wall ) inside home.
Its beginnings are based on the ecological evolution of the vegetal covers that have adapted to cover facades, roofs and walls of large buildings – vertical garden – where architects and landscape designers contribute not only a floral and vegetal aesthetic in the decoration, there is much more.
Also, it provides a significant improvement in thermal comfort of the building, to help purify the environment by contributing oxygen and improving environmental quality , etc. Benefits palpable that are practiced today more than ever.
The trend of natural vertical gardens or Artificial plants have been introduced into homes at a smaller scale given the inclination to live in spaces little ones and the need to enjoy a small orchard.
The vertical gardens in homes are a very viable option; whether for the interior of the house or the balcony, and, if applicable, outside on a terrace, besides being easy to care for.
Of course, becoming urban gardeners requires learning, but in this article we are going to explain step by step how to make a vertical garden for home in a practical and simple way. We start with the guide…
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The vertical garden can be defined as a wall plant consisting of an installation attached to a wall vertical covered with different species of plants .
The vegetation that can be natural or artificial is rests on a structure that can be assembled different sizes outside, outdoors; terraces, balconies, patios, facades, or inside the houses; dining room, kitchen, balcony, corridors, allowing a vegetable wall varied in flora .
It is the perfect solution for houses with space reduced in which we want to enjoy a green wall and a modern touch that connect with nature thanks to a mini-garden household , without its maintenance being an effort or high complication for the occupants of the house.
We could say that the slogan would be… "A garden does not has to be planted from the ground to enjoy a green cloak» .
But… Why is it easy to have a natural garden vertical? To understand what are the advantages of green wall system (with little or no soil direct agricultural) with traditional crops we provide this comparative:
| Above Ground Garden traditional | No direct soil Garden vertical | |
| Plant Nutrition | Very variable, difficult to control | Controlable, soil easy to check and correct |
| Spacing | Limited to fertility | Higher densities, better use of space and light |
| Weed Control | Presence of weeds | Much less or none |
| Diseases and Soil Pathogens | Most common soil diseases | The little land we use is controlled |
| Water | Plants suffer stress from inefficient use of water | There is no water stress, we control the water |
Note: In many respects, a plant ecosystem that forms a green wall is not for having vegetables, it is for ornamental plants. If your intention is to have some tomatoes fresh fruits that you have grown at home, for example, you have to read another long article we have about a guide complete urban garden.
The living walls play an important role that favors different aspects, both in a building when it is applied to roofs, façades or terraces, such as inside a house. Main functions of the green walls :
At home, the benefits of having a garden vertical in the home are substantial and a practical that we should begin to consider. some of his advantages are the following:
As drawbacks, to name a few: its installation has a cost, although it is cheap if practiced consistently and with possibility of using recycled materials in the structure (for example, with pallets), home-style planters, drawers reused wood, bottles, etc. We will get a crop wall cheap! (Remember our useful article about recycled pallets for furniture)
Of course, we will need to invest some time in care of it, and, depending on the location (Interiors or outdoors), we will not always be able to plant all the species of plants, vegetables or flowers that we would like.
If we want to cultivate a beautiful urban garden, be external to the outdoors or indoors, semi-covered or fully covered, we must follow a series of steps to get a wall pretty green.
As a first recommendation to build an ecosystem vertical , is to start with a small garden home , and, if we like it, we will expand the distribution to larger, investing more money and time in its maintenance.
Although we obviously already have a site in mind, we do We must look at some important aspects. First… Where can we put a living wall?
| Vertical garden outside | Vertical garden inside |
| Outdoor terrace walls | Balcony |
| Vertically in the middle of the terrace | Hallway |
| Hanging in the middle of the terrace | Living-dining room) |
| Yards | Bathroom |
| Lounge or communal terrace of the building | Kitchen |
| Parts of the facade of the building | *Sleeping rooms are prohibited. |
But… What should I look at before deciding where put up the garden? Here, there are three key elements before to decide the location:
How do we identify if our green wall is not Does it get enough light? In search of it, the stems they will grow longer and more fragile, and the leaves will have a pale green.
This depends a lot on the expense we want to make and the skill of each user. Once the support structure is in place, we will not need many utensils either. We will need appropriate tools, that is, by hand.
Look for garden tools with short handles and be ergonomic so you can work well. As example of some utensils:
To understand how far we can go with
Even though we have a preset idea of what we want, First we must know what options exist in the market to set up our green wall , and what There are vertical technologies and systems for a mini garden .
Because of the way we put up the walls green with modular compositions, we can "play" and this can give us other ideas to locate the garden at home.
The container or final structure that will hold our ornamental plants should meet six aspects basic . We remember this point, because if you want to make a Homemade "minigarden" with old elements (As a note complementary, see article waste and waste containers recycling). The containers must have the following basic functions:
| Tightness | Water holding capacity | Nutrition |
| Drainage | Consistency | Filtration |
The types of vertical gardens that We can assemble at home, both indoors and outdoors, in a terrace or balcony are:
But… Where can I buy the structures for create the vertical garden and tools? As always We commented, we must look and compare if we want to save a few euros. And if it is a large plant wall, to ask different budgets.
From cornership stores (sometimes surprise in price of tools and materials) to large DIY shops such as Leroy Merlin , Bauhaus , Aki , etc. We have many options for choose.
The most comfortable option is to buy a vertical garden with artificial plants . Those of quality and that are realistic, they are worth money, and, more, for interior. we recommend buy:
Buy a structure for the garden of wall , in our opinion, is the most correct option Although we will have to take care of the plants, which is not a big deal! is to look for them to be modular. So we can remove or put plants easily.
For interior and exterior. There are hundreds of possibilities; of plastic, vase-style, bags, ceramic, metal, wood, modular, etc. For us, the modular ones are the perfect option because we can expand or remove, depending on need. We are left with:
By the way, with imagination, a little crafts and DIY, we can save money on the structure; pallets recycled, wooden boxes, plastic bottles, stones, pots and pots that we no longer use, gutters, etc. put imagination to fit in the decoration!
Note: We are talking about walls vegetables for spaces with small dimensions , when we talk about gardens on facades of buildings or cover a large area of a wall professionally, the theme in its typology is complicated a lot.
Here, more advanced installation techniques and systems are already used. complexes. As an example and schematic of a mounting system:
The landscaped walls – from a technical perspective – bring great benefits; not only in an increase in humidity or an improvement in CO2, among others issues. We can also achieve significant savings in water, both in irrigation water (more optimized) or reuse the excess, such as the possibility of filtering the water residual (for example, from the bathrooms) and use it for other issues:
In this case, for those who want to learn more from a much more technical perspective, we recommend the following documents:
Today, it is easy to access nurseries where we can choose from a wide variety of land, yes, they must be according to the type of plants we bought. So we'll have to ask in store, what is the best substrate for the plant that we use in the vertical garden .
Highly recommended! Ask in a specialized store What substrate do they need for the garden according to the plants? ornamentals that we are going to use.
You have to make sure that when we place the root ball (Mass of soil that is left attached to the roots of plants to transplant them) do not directly touch the bottom of the pot or drawer. Roots need space to grow. also put Be careful to use drainage stones at the bottom of the container.
The adequate substrate will be the one that assures you support conditions, access of oxygen to the roots, a adequate retention of water and nutrients necessary. Most common substrate types:
The less chemical fertilizers, the better for everyone, we must Take advantage of the waste generated at home. organic fertilizer and free! We can make them at home or on the terrace with help of a composting kit.
You can learn more with the manual of good composter from HERE, the diagrams at the end are very useful from the PDF.
We usually use some soil with minerals (which It is the most normal thing when we talk about a vertical garden homemade in which we use potsherds in their different forms) but, also, the flora can grow thanks to the hydroponics method (no soil, more information from concept here) where plants fed by mineral solutions instead of agricultural soil.
Here are two aspects, small Grow Kits hydroponics more intended to have a few vegetables at home (There are some clear examples in Amazon) or agriculture hydroponics in vertical gardens that is more used for a professional practice with complex systems that can create an impressive green wall (On topic, at end there is a technical reference document).
Before you start, look at the containers you use; planters, pots, drawers, etc., have a hole for the water drainage. And now, follow the steps of the scheme next:
The plants that we are going to be able to use – mainly – will depend on the location of our natural wall, on the light they can receive and if it is located indoors or we have the orchard in the open air (Of interest, see also the article by plants for the interior of the home)
For indoor plants and the forest , Better to see the recommendations of the following one that is very good explained:
For outdoor garden plants . The that will surely work very well, are using the native plants of the area is a safe bet! As an example of others that we can use:
In floriculture and horticulture each variety has its own characteristics, which also depends a lot on where we we find and the weather conditions. There are hundreds of species and as an option to learn more about them, it is better to use any App specialized in gardening.
As a recommendation for mobile, the app of gardening PlantSnap which is in Spanish (it is a identifier of plants and flowers) for Android HERE and for ISO from HERE (Identifies more than 600,000 species of plants from everyone in an instant with features).
Plants and flowers grown in a container they need more water than those that live in the soil.
Tips for watering garden plants garden:
As a summary of the points that we have reviewed this article, We leave you a video where the keys and some Tips for creating a natural vertical garden or one with artificial plants.
We always like to provide complementary information and that can be useful, so to learn more:
Since we've learned a lot, it's time to get a little inspired by photographs and ideas from different places on the Internet that They will surely provide us with good original ideas! There are users who they have a lot of imagination!
Although on the Internet we can find images of vertical gardens and hundreds of photos , the quality good, sometimes hard to find. So we have collected some places with quality photos:
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