What can I reuse or recycle to make a vertical garden/living wall?

Readers of my simple/DIY living blog The Really Good Life will already know that I’m trying to make more efficient use of the space in my garden this year – I’ve been making lots of planters and raised beds from scrap wood (including this weekend, a 3ftx3ft bed for square foot gardening from our old bathroom cupboard doors) and I’m also interested in vertical gardening – creating a living wall of salad, herbs and companion plants.

I’ve explored the various different types of wall planters/hangers that you can buy – from essentially shelves, to window boxes, fabric bags and complicated systems – but me being me, I would prefer to make them myself, ideally reusing and recycling stuff I already have stashed around the place.

Some lovely people have already made some suggestions – I’m going to try making upside down planters from squash bottles and a fancy living wall type system from an old pallet when I find a suitable one – but I thought I’d ask on here as well in case anyone else has any suggestions.

I realise we’ve already covered similar areas like this before but I think the wall-mounted aspect opens up some other options – and I’d love to hear them.

What have you used to make wall planters? Have you made a vertical garden or a living wall? Or have you made any hanging baskets from anything interesting?

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5 Responses to “What can I reuse or recycle to make a vertical garden/living wall?”


  1. glitterpixie says:

    I bookmarked this just the other day. Looks awesome.
    http://www.ahahomeandgarden.com/garden/how-to-make-a-hanging-gutter-garden/

  2. Ivan says:

    Thank you for such a detailed article, here I prochtial a lot and try to apply it and come up with something new!

  3. What about one of those old hanging shoe tidy things that you used to see a lot. They have lots of pairs-of-shoe-sized pockets in the front that you could plant up with individual plants.
    They’d be great for anything that can hang or trail, like herbs or strawberries.

  4. tamara says:

    inspired by patrick blanc, i did some research
    http://youtu.be/HaqtpT_cQfw
    this video reminds me of the concept–and i think the plastic bases they used look just like something the coca cola vendor at the grocery store uses…



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