By Kelly Miller
Vertical gardening involves growing plants off the ground—like putting veggies or flowers in their own little high-rise apartments. This can be accomplished with trellises, walls, or multi-level planters.
If you’re a creative DIY’er or you’re trying to make the most out of limited space, then vertical gardening offers intriguing possibilities.
Reasons to Try Vertical Gardening
Vertical gardening is a way for gardeners to showcase their creativity with unique materials and arrangements. There are also practical reasons to “grow up,” including:
- More plants in less space. Vertical gardening means growing multiple plants over the same piece of ground.
- Back-friendly gardening. Spend less time bending over to reach low-growing plants.
- Avoid weeds, pests, and diseases. Plants face fewer threats when they aren’t growing in the ground.
- Extended growing season. Grow along a south-facing wall to maximize radiant heat, or move vertical gardening structures around throughout the year to optimize conditions.
- Beauty. Bringing plants up to eye level creates layers of visual appeal. Vertical gardening offers unique opportunities for defining borders and filling a space with greenery.
Types of Vertical Gardening
Vertical gardening is ideal for plants that don’t require much soil, along with vining or creeping plants. Methods involve either growing plants in multi-level containers, or providing supports, such as trellises, to guide plant growth upward. Here are a few approaches to consider.
Vertical Planters
One way to grow multiple plants in the same space is with free-standing, multi-level planters. This type of planter includes either built-in containers, flat surfaces for holding pots, or a bracket system for attaching hanging planters.
Free-standing planters make it easy to get started with vertical gardening. These structures are easy to set up, move, and maintain. They usually offer limited soil depth, so they’re ideal for veggies with shallow root systems. Multi-level planters are also great for creeping or trailing ornamental plants and flowers, providing space for them to spill down the sides.
Trellises, Cages, and Obelisks
Another way to garden vertically is to grow plants in the ground and guide their growth upward along support structures. This method works wonders with flowering vines and climbing plants that would otherwise sprawl along the ground, where they’re less visible and prone to rotting.
Vertical supports for climbing plants include:
Cages for Supporting Plants
Garden cages are usually referred to as tomato cages, since they’re ideal for supporting the long vines of indeterminate tomato plants. Cages are simple structures, usually made from metal, wire, or wood, that provide several levels of rungs to support vining plants.
Obelisks for Climbing Plants
An obelisk is a pyramid-shaped structure that supports climbing or vining plants. Obelisks serve the same function as tomato cages, but they offer more visual appeal. While tomato cages are usually used for veggies, obelisks are a more typical choice for ornamental flowers.
Panel Trellises to Take Advantage of Wall Space
A panel trellis is a flat, vertical framework of intersecting bars, used in gardens for supporting plants that climb or vine. Trellises are attractive and efficient. Along with supporting veggie plants or ornamental plants, trellises can define borders and establish privacy screens.
Arch Trellises and Arbors for Vining Plants
An arch trellis is a curved trellis that can stand in or over a garden bed. Or, a tall arch trellis can serve as the entrance to a path. Similar structures with flat sides, rather than curves, are sometimes called arbors. Arch trellises and arbors are terrific for supporting very long vining plants. They also form beautiful features at the front of a garden or overtop the path between two parallel beds.
Create an Espalier
An espalier is a horticultural technique in which trees or shrubs are trained to grow flat against a wall, fence, or trellis, forming decorative patterns with their branches and providing another option for vertical gardening. This method originated in Europe centuries ago and is still popular today for both practical and aesthetic reasons.
Choosing where to grow an espalier is crucial for success. Ideally, select a spot that receives at least six hours of sunlight daily—south- or west-facing walls are excellent options. The support structure needs to be sturdy enough to guide and hold the branches. Espaliers can be grown along fences, garden walls, sides of houses, or even as freestanding structures with the help of strong stakes or wires.
Espaliers save space, making them perfect for small gardens and urban environments where horizontal areas are limited. They improve airflow around the plant, which can reduce disease risk. Additionally, because fruiting walls absorb warmth from nearby surfaces during the day and release it at night, espaliers often result in better fruit ripening making them especially useful for apple and pear trees.
Living Walls
A living wall is a vertical structure engineered to be covered in plants. The wall’s design includes integrated spaces for growing roots and spreading out foliage to efficiently fill the space with greenery. Common elements include angled panels for supporting plants, waterproofing around the structure, and drip irrigation.
Living walls are beautiful, but they’re expensive and high-maintenance. Alternatively, you can create simpler DIY versions of this concept using vertical planters and plants with trailing foliage. Another simple alternative is a pocket planter wall, discussed below.
Pocket Planters
Pocket planters are small soil-filled sacks that hang from a wall. Pocket planters are usually made from soft material, like fabric or felt. This method typically involves multiple rows of pockets, packing lots of plants tightly together. Pocket planters are usually used for small plants, since each pocket holds a limited amount of soil.
Pocket planters offer interesting DIY possibilities. For example, this system could be installed on anything from a shed wall to an old door, and the pockets could be made from scratch or with repurposed materials, such as a shoe organizer.
Vertical Garden Plant Selection
Vertical planters and living walls can support all sorts of flowers, herbs, and veggies. The main limitation is the amount of soil that each plant has access to. As with any plant growing in a container, it’s important to choose plants that won’t outgrow their pockets or panels, unless the plan is to transplant them later.
Additionally, if a planter provides uneven lighting, use sun-loving plants in the upper layers and shade-tolerant varieties below.
Suitable varieties for vertical planters and living walls include:
- Small veggies and herbs, such as radishes, beets, microgreens, or basil.
- Small flowers, such as daisies, begonias, or pansies.
- Small ornamental plants, such as succulents.
- Trailing or creeping plants, such as phlox, petunias, or nasturtiums.
- Shade-loving plants (for lower levels), such as hostas or ferns.
Meanwhile, trellises, cages, and obelisks are ideal for plants that sprawl or vine to great lengths. These plants can be coaxed upward to beautifully adorn an arch trellis with foliage and flowers, or to produce robust harvests that fill up a cage or obelisk. Just be careful to avoid invasive species, since many exotic vining plants are invasive in North America.
Great choices for trellises, cages, and obelisks include:
- Vining flowering plants, such as Mandevilla or climbing aster.
- Climbing veggies, such as tomatoes, peas, pole beans, and cucumbers.
Vertical Gardening Challenges
When you set up a vertical gardening structure, consider its eventual effect on the surroundings. If you install a living wall on an existing wall, waterproofing may be necessary to prevent damage. Additionally, make sure that the structure you’re using is able to safely support the weight of the plants and soil.
Another key concern is drainage, since watering the plants may result in water dripping on the surface below. If the planter is on a built surface, such as a deck, you can use a catch basin to collect runoff. If the planter is on the ground, it may be helpful to use fast-draining materials, such as pebbles, underneath.
Big Gardens in Small Spaces
Vertical gardening brings a lush, productive energy to a small piece of land. One garden design style that’s well suited for vertical plantings is the cottage garden, which involves crowded plantings, layers, and a cozy aesthetic. Learn about this classic approach to gardening in our guide: How to Create a Colorful Cottage Garden.
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