This list of 24 DIY Vertical Garden Designs and Ideas has everything you need to get started in creating the perfect vertical garden support or planter.
Vertical gardening is exactly what it sounds like: growing plants and food up, instead of out. There are many reasons to implement this technique on your property, including saving space, reducing the occurence of soil-borne diseases, or creating a beautiful decorative piece to add to your patio.
Having plants grow with the aid of the vertical method is a great way to prevent ground-growing and vining crops from getting crushed or eaten by pests like slugs. It also prevents the spreading plants from suffocating or leaching sunlight from your other crops by covering them up as they grow. Vertical gardens are also an ideal choice for those gardeners who may not be able to do the physical work of a more traditional garden.
This list consist of 2 main types of vertical garden designs: planters and trellises. Trellises are used mainly to support vining vegetables or flowers, while planters can hold more traditional herbs and vegetables.
1. Vertical Herb Planter
Love the taste of fresh herbs? This vertical herb planter lets you grow them all in one convenient place – right outside your door! With removable shelves that can be easily left off for taller growing spaces, this simple project can be completed before lunchtime. Cut the lumber yourself if you have some woodworking experience, or make it easy by having the boards pre-cut at your local home improvement store.
2. Adjustable Garden Trellis
Different plants and vegetables call for different types and sizes of support, and this adjustable garden trellis can do it all. You will need a saw and a drill, but the end product is totally worth it. The angle of the trellis can adjust to fit your gardening needs – just add the cucumbers!
3. Rustic Trellis For Vining Flowers
Our favorite kind of projects are ones that source the materials from the natural world. This rustic trellis is a perfect example! Find some appropriately sized and shaped sticks to screw together to form this amazing home for your perrenial vining plants.
4. Vertical Terracotta Pot Planter
As far as difficulty goes, this is about as easy as a vertical planter gets. This simple project requires no tools or specialized knowledge, and is devoid of chemically treated wood and materials. Terracotta pots are inexpensive and when put together for this project, make an awesome decorative piece to add to your garden or porch.
5. Upcycled Shoe Organizer Planter
We love this awesome way to reuse an item that is usually tossed in the dumpster after getting too dirty or worn out. This planter can be used either inside or out! It’s seen here growing a variety of vegetables, but it would also work great for herbs and greens.
6. Self-Watering Vertical Garden
This self-watering vertical garden is so impressive that we just had to include it on this list. With that being said, be warned that this is a pretty big project to take on, however it could certainly be worth the time and effort! Included in the design is a rainwater collection system, a wind turbine, a small solar panel, 2 pumps, a car battery, and 72 large plastic water bottles. It truly is the mack daddy of vertical gardens!
7. Vertical Strawberry Tube Planter
This strawberry tube planter is an awesome way to use space more efficiently. Strawberries tend to take up a lot of room, especially when sending runners out. Last year, we tried a horizontal container and could only fit 2-3 plants. We wish we would’ve had this design! Not only does this vertical tube planter give you room to grow more strawberries, but it’s incredibly easy to make, with the right tools.
8. Easy DIY T-Post Garden Trellis
There are so many options for beautiful vining and climbing flowers that it’s easy to run out of places to grow them. This easy DIY garden trellis is made with a few t-posts, zip ties and a lot of tree branches. It has a rustic garden vibe and the entire project can be completed in an afternoon, including cutting down the trees. This particular design calls for poplar stems, but if you don’t have those available, any other straight, young stems or sticks will do.
9. Conduit Pipe Vertical Garden
Some gardeners may recommend building this structure out of PVC pipe or even more wood, which you likely have scraps of lying around. But the electric conduit pipes are inexpensive and very sturdy, and unlike the previously listed options, they are not going to bend or break over time. Make sure you give your vertical garden exactly the support it needs to hold the plants and their eventual yield. Built this way, your vertical garden could support even pumpkins and large squash without compromising the strength of the garden.
10. Mason Jar Vertical Herb Garden
These mason jar herb gardens are so cute! What a clever way to use those extra mason jars all of us homesteaders have lying around. Follow the original plan if you want to keep the same “aesthetic” as the picture below, but of course these could be made with materials you already have lying around.
11. Soda Bottle Vertical Garden
If you’re a soda drinker, this is a perfect way to repurpose any bottles you have lying around. Held together with 2 CD racks and some zip ties, this vertical garden features some awesome upcycling. The bottles are a great shape for herbs, succulents, or microgreens. If you don’t already have empty soda bottles (or know someone who does), we suggest using a different design.
12. Pyramid Tower Garden
This DIY pyramid garden tower (strawberry planter) will give you the extra gardening and planting space you need. This is a great diy garden project, but because of the compound angles that need to be cut, it requires a compound miter saw which does take some skill to use correctly. According to its designer, this vertical garden tower cost about $200 and took about 14 hours to build (take the cost with a grain of salt, due to the high current cost of lumber).
13. Upcycled Shower Caddy Vertical Planter
Here is another incredibly easy design turning regular pots into a vertical planter. If you have an old shower caddy lying around, give it a good scrub, spary paint it and then hang it up. Add some pots with some nice plants or herbs, and you’re good to go. I encourage you to upcycle as much as you can! If you don’t have an old shower caddy on hand, try another design you can accomodate before buying anything new.
14. Willow Arbor
Rustic furniture made from twigs and logs has been popular for decades. The style still thrives for its resourcefulness and natural look. This simple arbor design can be easily personalized for your garden. After learning these simple twig-building techniques, you’ll likely want to prune more often, just so you can make trellises, planters, and more
15. Ladder Style Garden Planter
Here’s a way to garden even if you have minimal space – a vertical garden ladder planter! It’s perfect for tiny backyards or a patio or balcony – even if you live in a small apartment in the city. Made of cedar fence pickets, this ladder planter will hold up to the elements but only costs about $20 to build. It’s a beginner project and you only need a few tools to tackle it.
16. DIY Chevron Lattice Trellis
This design is certainly one of the more “trendy” on this list, as it is intended to be a decorative piece in addition to being used for planting. It can be used to hang pots, as seen in the picture below, or to support vining plants or vegetables. Tools and woodworking are required.
17. Bean Pole Teepee
Although geared toward kids in the original blog post, we picture this teepee being delightful for adults as well. Use the space underneath to curl up with a good book, or have picnic. If built a little larger, it could be a nice place to put a bench. Additionally, although it’s intended to use for beans, other vining perennials would be lovely as well.
18. Cheap Raised Bed Trellis
Cheap, easy, and gets the job done. There’s nothing fancy or decorative about this trellis, as it’s all about utility. Perfect for vegetables that require extra support, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, or squash.
19. Easy Twine Trellis
Of course vertical gardens in themselves are safe-savers, but this trellis goes the extra mile in reducing the horizontal footprint of your garden. This is perfect for a small balcony or backyard where space comes at a premium! The only materials required are a wood post, nails, and twine.
20. Upcycled Garden Trellis
Another trellis made of wood found on your own property? You bet! – we love to see it. Instead of burn piles, why not honor the trees and give them a second life? The creators used grape and honeysuckle vines to wrap around the trellis and hold it together. This is an easy and artistic way to create a trellis for your vining plants.
21. Vertical Gardening Pipe
This design is similar to the strawberry pipe mentioned above, but with more holes for other types of plants. The instructions listed will give you a 16″ tall planter, although I’m sure the measurements can be adjusted to make it taller, if wanted. Decorate your porch, deck, living room, or kitchen with this cute vertical gardening pipe.
22. Vacuum Hose Wreath
Using a vacuum hose to plant a garden is something we’ve certainly never seen… until now! Here’s another clever way to upcycle an item that usually gets tossed out. Although the one pictured below isn’t necessarily the prettiest planter on this list, I’m sure with some spray paint, creativity, and glue, that it could easily be beautified. This project can be done with any vacuum cleaner as long as it contains a hose, although the joint mechanism might have to be adapted to fit.
23. Burlap Vertical Potato Garden
Potatoes are pretty easy to grow, but since they develop underground, they require deep patches of soil. If you don’t have an inground area to plant potatoes, but don’t want to create an entire raised bed with enough soil (expensive), here’s the perfect alternative. You can buy “potato grow bags” online for anywhere from $10 – $30, or make this cheap homemade version with just a tomato cage and burlap.
24. Vertical Pallet Planter
Pallets are always in abundance, and this planter is an easy way to put them to good use. This pallet is mounted to the wall and the soil is held in with landscaping fabric. Paint them whatever color will complement your beautiful flowers.
