With vertical gardening, you can creatively fit lots of plants into a small space. Whether it's a small balcony, a mini terrace, or a few square metres of a courtyard, you can add greenery without using your horizontal space. Your garden simply grows upwards or hangs downwards. When set up correctly, it is easy to maintain, and back-friendly. In the summer, the plants provide a natural cooling effect. You can also create vertical gardens indoors to make the most of your space. With the right plants, you can even filter pollutants from the air and improve overall air quality.

There are various systems for gardening in the third dimension.

• Hanging gardens:

With hanging planters, baskets, and shelves, you can make use of vertical spaces. Flowering plants like trailing geraniums or petunias, as well as climbing strawberries or nasturtiums, are perfect for this. They also make great hanging ideas for herbs.

• Blooming art:
  You can add green accents to the wall with moss frames, which you can fill with succulents. A planted door sign looks welcoming, even when there is limited space at your front door.
• Climbing ambition:
  Climbing plants such as ivy (Hedera helix), clematis, climbing roses, or Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) can grow upwards on their own. They are ideal for greenifying house facades, as well as balconies and terraces. Provide them with some initial support by using a trellis.

• Plant towers:
  These are great options for a free-standing vertical space. You can even build one yourself using pallets, which can also serve as a privacy screen. In stores, you’ll find plant pots made of plastic or clay, where plants grow compactly on top of each other.

• Living wall:
  A practical and cost-effective structure can be built using rain gutters, which almost take care of themselves. Professionals can install a green wall for indoor or outdoor use, complete with an irrigation system.

The wall where vertical gardens are installed should be stable, as it needs to support quite a bit of weight, especially with a large number of plants or complex installations. If you want to build the wall outdoors, materials like stainless steel, treated wood, or plastic are recommended. However, plants outdoors should not be exposed to extreme weather conditions. A wall side protected from rain, strong winds, and intense heat is ideal for a living wall.

A good supply of water and nutrients is particularly important in vertical gardening, as the plant containers are usually quite small. Many systems, such as plant pockets, hanging baskets, and pots, use a substrate. A well-draining, high-quality soil that does not tend to retain excess moisture forms the foundation for healthy plant growth. Expanded clay is often a good option as a planting base. These so-called hydroponic systems mean that plants are nourished exclusively through water and nutrients, without the need for soil.

The right amount of watering is important for the plants to survive and this can depend on the height and size of the plant containers, which is not always easy to manage. For larger installations, a well-thought-out drip irrigation or a self-watering system is worthwhile. This ensures the plants receive sufficient water and nutrients to grow. For hanging baskets or pallet gardens with little substrate, frequent watering is necessary, especially in summer when the soil dries out quickly. In such cases, it’s beneficial if you have chosen low-maintenance plants.

Not all plants thrive well in vertical gardens, as the limited space in most setups can restrict growth. However, there is still a wide variety of ornamental plants suitable for your vertical garden: mini ferns, succulents, moss, small orchids, ivy, as well as petunias, geraniums, sweet potatoes (Ipomoea), and coral bells (Heuchera). Compact-growth vegetables and herbs also thrive very well in vertical gardens because they require little space – read more about that here.

Indoors, houseplants create green spaces and they can also adorn your walls. These green plants filter pollutants from the air while acting as natural humidifiers. This way, living walls create an optimal climate in your home. It's worth considering how you can green your walls, whether with a growing station, a DIY wall holder, or hanging plant pots.

If you'd like to know more about when to carry out specific gardening tasks, you can find the right times to do the important activities in our garden calendar.