This is a vertical planter I made out if some scraps of wood I had lying around. For potting the plants, I used some bath mugs that you can easily find in stores. These are not only cost efficient but are also very mobile i.e. you can move the plants around easily to rearrange for look or for adjusting the amount of sunlight the plants get. This is a very simple build that allows you to use an unused wall and convert it into a vertical garden! I intended to make this into a herb wall and planted varieties of basil and mint.

Measurements:
I didn’t give any measurements as this is subject to the height & width availability of your wall. But the principle of building it remain the same. You need to build something similar to a ladder. So you have 2 rails (the long wood pieces) and the stiles (steps of the ladder). The distance between the stiles (when this ladder is mounted) and the wall should be enough to accomodate the handle of the mugs. I’ll advise that you first measure the depth of both the rail and stile pieces and compare with the handle. Too much gap will result in the mug drooping down too much. Too little gap and you won’t be able to fit the handle in. So do a dry run with a few pieces of wood before you build the final thing.

Stiles Gap:
You can build the stiles closer to each other or further apart depending on the your needs and availability of wood. Too close may look good but need a lot of stiles. Too far apart may not give you the flexibility of positioning the plants. So decide accordingly and work out the distance between the stiles.

Colouring the Planter:
I used a basic universal stainer that you can find at most hardware stores. I mixed it with some water bfore applying it. It was a mossy green colour I went after so I first applied the blue stain and then the yellow stain. I could have mixed both blue and yellow stains first and then applied the mixture, but I doubt it would have given the colour inconsistency that is required to get that mossy look. You can try though. In the hindsight I think I should have tried applying yellow first and blue over it to see how that looked..you can try that! I used a simple waste cloth to apply the stain. Generally use any cloth that doesn’t leave behind any lint. A cheap kitchen cloth or old t-shirt should be just fine.

Protective Coat:
I sprayed the wood pieces with spray lacquer. You can find this in most hardware stores or online. Any PU (polyurethane) would also be fine although for this work I didn’t want the unnecessary & time consuming effort you need to put while applying a basic PU. Lacquer dries fast and is plenty strong in protecting wood. If tou don’t have this/don’t want to apply it you can skip this part.

Finally the Pots!
I used bath mugs for the pots. Just drilled some holes at the bottom so water can drain away easily. Used a potting mix consisting of Sand, Soil and Coco peat in equal measures.

Hang those plants!

Music “Blind Love Dub” by Jeris featuring Kara Square (mindmapthat)
Available at ccMixter.org http://ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/55416
Under CC BY license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Easy Vertical Garden Planter (Using bath mugs)