These imaginative ideas can help you grow plants right on your walls.
Starting with climbing plants is a great idea, but you also have to take into account trailing plants, herbs, fan-trained fruits, and quick-fix annuals.
There are lots of plants that will enjoy the conditions, as walls are blank canvases and can effectively retain heat. Do keep in mind that pots near walls could be under a rain shadow; hence, choose carefully the plants, water carefully, or use an automatic drip irrigation system.
On This Page
Below are some of our favorite garden wall planting ideas.
Classic climbers
Walls are perfect for classic climbers like roses and clematis, as they provide
Shade lovers
Epiphytic plants like ferns and bromeliads can be installed on walls, poles, or rustic branches for shady walls. The mix of plants seen includes Hart’s tongue ferns, Mind Your Own Business, and Brunnera.
Trailing edibles
Trailing edibles, such as tomatoes or squashes that can grow vertically, are ideal for walls. You might also attempt hanging baskets in addition to multi-story planters and pocket gardens.
Space-saving fruit
Fruit trees grown in both Espalier and Fan flourish under the cover of warm walls. Try apples, pears, cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines, figs, and apricots. Find three techniques for training fruit trees.
Fast flowers
Summer climbers such as Eccremocarpus, sweet peas, Thunbergia alata, or Cobaea accentuate a wall without invading the space. Start them early in the year, then progressively harden them off before late spring planting.
Multi-storey planting
You can hang or fasten mangers or baskets one over the other to maximize the planting area. Perfect trailing plants are ivy, Lysimachia congestiflora, and prostrate rosemary.
Space-savvy salads
Cut and come back once more. Salads need not have much root space to flourish. Try attaching them to walls and fences, or create a space-saving salad planter from guttering pieces. Purpose-created wall planners also come in handy; learn how to use one to produce a live wall.
Tips for vertical gardening
When attaching pouches, baskets, mangers, shelves, or trellis, specialist anchor bolts—from DIY stores—are indispensable and will carry more weight than screws and rawl plugs. Obtain permission; neighbors often share or own walls. See whether they would be content for you to pierce through.
Keep this simple with an automated drip irrigation system or use a crook-necked hanging basket lance on a hose to reach high-altitude pots and pouches. Try building this hanging plant shelf by adding a front ‘lip’ or cutting out round holes that pots can slot into, preventing pots from falling from display shelves.
Tropical epiphytes will flourish against an outdoor wall from June to October, but in winter they need a well-lit indoor or underglass habitat. Most cannot stand temperatures below 7–10 °C. Control ascentists: Although self-clinging climbers like ivy, virginia creeper, and climbing hydrangea don’t need trellis, their careful management helps to prevent damage to façade and roof surfaces.
