Living walls, or vertical gardens, are the latest great design craze and have been popping up all over the place. While they are increasingly popular in businesses and public areas, these living works of art are also especially handy for people living in small spaces where space for plants is limited. Though they look gorgeous, aesthetics aren’t the only reason for putting up one of these babies: having plenty of green plants around can also reduce stress, increase wellbeing, purify and humidify the air, and dampen noise pollution! Getting a living wall professionally designed and installed can cost a fortune… luckily, this DIY version is quick, easy, and cheap!
The Difficulty: Medium – you need to be familiar with some basic tools, and a considerable amount of strength is needed when things get heavy
The Time Commitment: Done in a day
The Look: Rustic and chunky, modern and on-trend
The Cost: Less than $100 (you’ll spend the most on plants)
Would I do it Again? Absolutely.
What you’ll need:
- Shipping Pallet (we got ours on the side of the road, outside a warehouse)
- Thin wood or plastic roughly the size of the back of the pallet
- Landscaping fabric
- Plastic sheeting
- Staple gun
- Indoor potting soil
- 3inch eyehooks
- Heavy weight bearing metal chain
Remove the slats from the top of the pallet. This can be a little tricky, but patience and creativity will get you there!
Cover the back of the pallet with the thin piece of wood, and nail into place. Then, cover the entire back of the pallet with the plastic sheeting and use the staple gun to secure. This will protect your walls from moisture!
Cover the back again, but this time with a double layer of landscaping fabric. This is mainly for aesthetic reasons, as the plastic is pretty ugly!
Measure where you want your slats to sit on the pallet. You probably won’t use all of the slats – try to leave at least 2.5 inches between each slat to make planting easier. Mark where each slat will go with a pencil, but don’t nail them down yet!
Create the dirt pockets. Using landscaping fabric, create a pocket on the underside of each slat. This is easiest when the slats haven’t been nailed down yet. We cut a strip of landscaping fabric, doubled it up, and stapled it first to the back of one slat. Then, we placed the slat down where we made pencil marks, and the stapled the other side of the landscaping fabric to the pallet. Repeat for each section. Make sure your pockets are deep enough that they will hold enough dirt, but not so deep that they will droop too much into the space below!
Nail down your slats!
Fill your pockets with potting soil, and start planting! We recommend doing this with the pallet leaning against the wall so that it is almost vertical.
Tip: Don’t overfill the pockets – the dirt should only come up to the top of each wood slat. Place the roots of each plant into the dirt on an angle and pack them in tightly.
Hang your living wall! This is optional, as they would look equally good propped up. We chose to hang ours using 3inch eyehooks and a heavy-duty chain. If you do hang your living wall, be sure to drill into studs so that the weight of the garden doesn’t rip out your drywall.
That’s it! Enjoy your new recycled living wall!