DIY Vertical Garden Panels

Small succulents grow up the wall in a vertical garden panel.

Vertical gardens are the urban answer to cramming a lot of nature into a small space. If you don’t have a yard, you can green your patio, your living room or a corner of the kitchen with a plant panel. Succulents are very forgiving and fill out a garden panel with interesting patterns and colors. It’s easy to buy a readymade succulent panel frame or make your own from an old shadow box.

Things You'll Need

• Shadow box
• Hardware screen with 1/2-inch holes
• Staple gun
• Hook or latch (optional)
• Screwdriver
• Wood screws (optional)
• Small succulent cuttings or pups
• Cactus medium
• Watering can
• Wall hook

Instructions

1. Buy or make a frame to hold succulents. One easy approach is to adapt an old shadow box into a vertical succulent frame by removing the glass or plastic from the hinged front cover. Staple the hardware screen to the inside of the cover, over the entire opening. Add an extra-strong hook to close the hinged cover and prevent it from swinging open once it is planted and hung on a wall. Or just screw the cover with the screen directly to the back section of the shadow box after you have filled it with cactus medium.

2. Collect or buy small succulent cuttings. If you have a garden or generous friends with a green thumb, save money by breaking off new growth, called pups, leaving at least a 1/4 -inch stem. Leave the pups out to harden off for a couple of days.

3. Fill the box with dampened cactus medium. Pack it right up to the wide mesh screen.

4. Push the little plants, stem first, into the holes in the screen and the moist soil beneath. For a 6-by-12-inch shadow box, you need about 60 small plants. Set the frame in a sunny, cool spot for seven to 10 days so the plants will root. After the plants root, water them every seven to 10 days but leave the frame flat.

5. Hang the frame on a wall in a bright, cool spot once the plants are securely growing in the cactus medium. This may take anywhere from four to 12 weeks. Remove the frame from its hook and lay it flat to water the succulents.

Tips & Warnings

• A wooden soda bottle crate makes a heavy but sturdy vertical panel. Fill it with cactus medium and sphagnum moss. Staple hardware screen over the opening and plant succulents. Hang the vertical garden on the patio wall or garden fence.

References

• “Sunset Magazine”; Make Your Own Living Succulent Art; Julie Chai
• Apartment Therapy; Where to Buy or DIY Vertical Garden Panels; Laure Joliet; March 10, 2010
• Apartment Therapy; 9 Inspiring Vertical Gardens; Laure Joliet; June 17, 2009; slide 6
• Flora Grubb: Vertical Garden DIY Panel