Learning how to make a vertical garden indoors is becoming more popular. Vertical gardens are fashionable in homes of all sizes and styles. They are attractive, exciting, and help to create healthier indoor air.
Creating your vertical garden isn’t as difficult as it may seem at first, and it’s an incredible way to make your home look and feel better.
Here’s how to make a vertical garden indoors.
Choose the Right Plants for Your Wall, or the Right Wall for Your Plants
Perhaps the most important part of how to create a vertical garden indoors is choosing plants that will thrive together. Different plants have different light, space, and water requirements, so you want to choose plants that have similar needs and can grow well on the same wall.
If you want to grow a vertical garden in a specific place in your home, it’s important to choose plants that will do well there. Also, if you want to grow a particular kind of vertical garden, like an herb garden, then it needs to be placed in an area with adequate light. Here are some tips to help you decide.
How to Make a Vertical Garden Indoors: Light
Bright Light
If you have a sunny area with windows that face south or west, which gets direct sunlight for five or more hours a day, you have bright light conditions.
Indirect Light
If you have an area with windows that face south or west, but the sunbeams don’t land directly on the wall, you have indirect lighting.
Low Light
If you have an area with windows that face east or north or windows in the shade, you have low light conditions.
No Light
If you have a room with only small shaded windows or no windows at all, you have no sunlight.
Believe it or not, you can find houseplants that will thrive in any of these lighting conditions. You might not even need to add artificial grow lights. But an indoor vertical garden shouldn’t mix plant species that like different lighting conditions.
Plants for Your Lighting
Below are some examples of plants that live well indoors, in different lighting conditions. Knowing that you have so many plant varieties to choose from may inspire you to get creative and make your vertical garden more diverse.
Bright Light Plants
- Crotons or variegated laurel
- Aloe vera
- Jade plant
- Snake plant
- Hibiscus
- Jasmine
- String of pearls
- A wide variety of herbs, palms, and cacti
Indirect Light Plants
- Spider plants
- Philodendron
- Pothos
- Calathea
- Ficus
- Prayer plants
- Air Plants
- A wide variety of ferns
Low and No-Light Plants
- Calathea (Peacock Plant)
- Dieffenbachia
- Bromeliads
- Peace lily
- Aglaonema
- Aspidistra
Choose Your Vertical Plant System
For many DIYers, starting a vertical garden may be as simple as hanging shelves, brackets, or a framework, hanging containers, and it’s done!
However, when you consider how to make a vertical garden indoors, consider how you’ll manage plant care. Plants in a vertical garden have less soil available and need regular care and maintenance.
Will you be using a stepladder to water your plants? How will you prevent water and moisture from damaging interior walls?
To save time and hassle, most vertical plant systems designed for use indoors have more sophisticated water management systems. Many use hydroponics or drip irrigation and waterproof linings to maintain the plants and manage moisture.
These systems cost more than DIY solutions, but it’s an easy way to manage a vertical garden indoors without moisture problems. Most of these systems are modular, so you can expand your vertical garden as much as you like.
How to Make a Vertical Garden Indoors: Common Problems
When choosing your plant system, it’s good to know the most common vertical garden problems and then avoid them.
The fact is, indoor vertical gardens often don’t do well, and many of the plants die for these common reasons:
Improper Conditions
Depending on how they’re planted and grow, some light-loving plants may end up shaded beneath their neighbors. Vertical gardens are humid and become more humid the larger they get. Of course, not all plants enjoy a damp environment.
Uneven Water Distribution
Early, gravity-fed vertical wall systems allowed water to drip down from the top plants. That means the plants on top of the vertical garden got watered well, but the plants on the bottom may have died from thirst.
Unequal Nutrients
Because there is so little soil, most people feed vertical gardens with water-soluble plant food. But, again, if the water is unevenly distributed, then so are the nutrients.
Whatever vertical garden system you choose, and however you decide to resolve water, nutrients, and plant maintenance issues, those are important factors to keep in mind.
Designing Your Vertical Garden
When designing your vertical garden, it’s important to consider not just what your plants look like now, but what they will look like over time as they grow.
If your plants are likely to grow tall or aggressively, consider how high you will need to reach to prune and maintain them.
If you add plants that spread aggressively, like ivies that grow tendrils, you will need to manage them carefully to protect your walls and surrounding plants.
Because vertical gardens have less room for soil and because very large or invasive plants are a potential problem, these are some of the best plants for an indoor vertical garden:
Ferns
Ferns are easy to grow, beautiful to look at, and highly adaptive. They are also light in weight, have small root systems for the amount of foliage, and quickly grow to fill in a garden. There are a huge variety of `for lots of interest and texture in a garden.
Bromeliads
Bromeliads have shallow roots and don’t require much space, so they are ideal for a vertical garden. They have vivid, long-lasting flowers and colorful leaves that add a dynamic quality to a vertical garden.
Pothos
Pothos is one of the most forgiving indoor plants, tolerant of a wide range of light, water, and soil conditions.
Different varieties have different colors and patterns on their attractive leaves, and their trailing habit helps to spread and fill in gaps in a vertical garden.
Lipstick Plant
The gorgeous lipstick plant both climbs upwards and trails downward, with gorgeous foliage and vibrant red flowers. It blooms sporadically all year long, and will grow well indoors with bright light and warm temperatures.
Cacti and Succulents
Succulents and Cacti plants are notoriously low-maintenance and adaptable, and come in every kind of color, shape, and size. They are a great way to round out a vertical garden.
Crotons
Crotons are another plant with incredible foliage and a compact root system. The intense color of the leaves requires bright light, but the plant is drought-resistant and easy to care for.
Baby’s Tears
The tiny, delicate leaves of this little ground cover are irresistible in a vertical garden. The plant requires bright light and is a great way to fill in small spaces.
Conclusion
Whether you want your garden to provide gorgeous greens or vivid color, grow up to the ceiling or trail down to the floor, there are plants that will do well in your environment and make a stunning living wall.
Vertical gardens are an incredible way to green up your indoors, improve your indoor air quality, create a more attractive home, and maximize your living space. With some planning and foresight, you can have a thriving garden wall in no time.
