When garden space is limited, grow up! These vertical gardening ideas share ways to make the most of the space you have and define outdoor living areas with arbors, repurposed ladders, hanging containers, and more.
Also, 25+ Creative Ideas for Garden Fences shares ways to dress up boring fences and exterior walls.
12 Vertical Gardening Ideas
The term vertical gardening has become trendy (and kind of annoying) but the idea is still a good one. If you have limited outdoor gardening space, or simply want to add more design elements, privacy, or interest to what you have, adding vertical structures and garden art is the way to go.
These ideas should give you plenty of inspiration.
1 Arbor, Trellis, & Obelisk Idea Gallery
A collection of ideas from home garden tours showing a variety of vertical garden structures.
This tutorial shows how to create a picture frame succulent garden to hang on a wall or fence.
3 Make an Outdoor Wall Plant Shelf
This easy project looks gorgeous with some potted plants to dress it up.
I made this for outdoor plants but ended up using it indoors in the winter for houseplants as well.
5 Make a Garden Arbor Planter Perfect for Strawberries
I love this project. It’s an arbor with built-in planters for trailing plants like strawberries.
6 Use Old Ladders in the Garden
Old wooden ladders always look great in the garden.
7 How to Make a Flower Garden Roof or Wall
Use this smart idea to create flower roof tops on a doghouse, birdhouse, shed, or small greenhouse.
If you want to grow veggies vertically, here’s a good resource:
8 Create a Raised Bed with Built-in Privacy Wall
I built this in my garden and it transformed the space, adding much needed privacy and creating new growing opportunities.
9 How to Grow a Sweet Pea Garden Arch
Start this project early in the season and you’ll have a gorgeous flower arch by summer.
10 Freestanding Privacy Screen with (Bonus!) Bug Hotel
This is another privacy wall in my garden. I built in the bug hotels for collections of twigs, bark, and whatnots.
11 Make Hanging Flower Pot Shelves
These look great next to a patio to display plants and define the space.
12 How to Make a Water Wall for a Container Pond
I saw this on a garden tour and thought it was so smart.
And, if you still need some growing space, consider a green roof:
And that’s it!
I hope you’re ready to grow up. In the best possible, planty way!
~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛
