The Vertical Garden Project

This is the futon that's been in our back yard for a few years. It's all worn out and chipping away and we decided to use the space differently, so it had to go.

We gave away the mattress and cover and took the frame apart. The side rails and bottom pieces are going to be pitched, but we thought the mattress frame might make a good vertical garden.

We fell in love with the concept of a vertical garden when we were in Paris and drove past the astonishing Vertical (living) Wall on Jean Nouvel’s Musée du quai Branly. We had never seen anything like it before.

The vertical garden concept appealed to us because our back yard is mostly paver stones and pool with concrete entertaining areas. I love to dig in the dirt anyway, and so it gave us the opportunity to create space out of thin air.

The double bed frame fit nicely against the side of the plain old boring shed, and with morning light and shade all afternoon it was a great location. The frame is roughly 75" h x 55" w.

We had to find the right type of planters. A hydroponic gardening shop I visited was using galvanized gutters for their indoor units, and the sales guy suggested a wider and deeper vinyl gutter. Vinyl would not conduct heat and could be cut to a desired length. It was certainly durable but not necessarily cheap, and available in 3 or 4 colors. Not a bad idea, actually.

But we were after a more natural look. We found these planter boxes at our second stop, decorative metal frames with a coco fiber liner. The liner is eco-friendly that reduces watering frequency by about 50%. It's got this biodegradable bladder that keeps the soil moist. And we liked that it resembled straw.

The planter boxes came with railing hardware, and it was an easy retrofit to make them adjustable rather than permanently attached. We liked the idea of being able to adjust it as things grow, and that each year can be a fresh look with a new variety of plants.

In the end, we brought six home - 4 large and 2 medium - and in them planted flowering vines of bacoma and morning glories for color and marjoram, thyme, rosemary, parsley, cilantro, sage, and a couple of types of basil.

We added an asparagus fern for fun and a star jasmine in a separate pot to crawl up the frame in-between the planters.  

Repurposing the frame saved a ton of money. You can make a vertical garden out of anything that is sturdy and useful - metal bunk bed framing, the top of an old grid patio table. The planter boxes we chose weren't cheap but there are alternatives. The plants were cheap, on average $2.79 per, and we already had the soil ... so it wasn't anywhere near a budget buster.

Did you notice the silverware herb markers? Aren't they great? We were at the Sunset Open House last weekend and bought from a vendor these (FABULOUS) repurposed silver plate cast-offs that she picked up at yard sales and Goodwill stores.

She flattens them out and punches words into them. Had To Have Them! She didn't have all that we were looking for and we happened to have a couple of cast-off utensils laying around so we have been experimenting with making our own.  They're actually easy to make.

This was a super fun weekend project. A vertical garden is a great use of space, a great use of something destined for the landfill, and now a lovely focal point in what was a drab little part of the yard. We will enjoy it for years, especially at dinner.