Interior Design Blog

Now that the warmer weather is here, my projects are heading outdoors, yay! I love to create a landscape design because it's so much fun and brings it's own design challenges along with it. Whether I am designing a pool and the surrounding landscape, patio or deck, I am always sure to incorporate a lot of native, easy to care for plantings that create a lot of visual interest.

Often times when creating a landscape design, people only think about the surface area. But I like to also draw the eyes upward a bit and bring some beauty to eye level. How do you accomplish that? Well, vertical living walls are my favorite. They are easy to install and care for and look beautiful. It's like adding artwork to your garden. Plus, they can also be used to disguise an unsightly view or an ugly fence.

French botanist Patrick Blanc is credited as the father of the green wall movement. He produced his first project on the exterior of the Museum of Science and Industry in Paris in 1988. Blanc refers to his projects as living paintings or vegetal walls. Dozens of his other works are now installed worldwide, indoors and out, and be easily created in your backyard!

Woolly Pocket offers some of the most brilliant and beautiful containers for living walls. Use their modular, green, breathable vertical garden planters to really have fun with plants. Using their planters will help you quickly and easily create lush green walls and magnificent vertical gardens on any indoor or outdoor wall, fence or railing. Get creative and construct your own shape or size!

Not sure what type of plants to grow in your vertical structures? Click here to see some great suggestions from Better Homes and Gardens like these listed below and more!

Annual flowering vines that climb without becoming too heavy include black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata), cardinal climber (Ipomoeaxmultifida), cypress vine (Ipomoea quamoclit), moonflower (Ipomoea alba), scarlet runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus), and hyacinth bean (Dolichos lablab). All grow best in full sun.

Easily grown perennial vines for vertical gardens include clematis hybrids, American bittersweet (Celastrus scandens), and ivy (Hedera selections). All grow best in full sun; clematis prefer to have their flowers in sun and their roots in shade.

Flowers aren't the only thing you can grow upright! If you think you don't have enough room for a vegetable garden, think again! A vertical garden could be just the answer you were looking for! I love this DIY pallet herb garden. It's pretty and functional...and so easy to create!! These are perfect for apartments, or backyards that may be limited on space.

If "growing up" wasn't exactly what you were looking for, how about some unique container gardens? Because it's so important for me to be kind to mother earth, I am always looking for creative ways to upcycle items that may seem like they are past their prime. Container gardening is one fun way to do so...like reusing an old tub! They work great for veggies with long root systems and they come with their own drainage holes. Just remember to add some broken old pot pieces or large rocks for extra drainage.

Using rocks as containers creates a really, really cool look too! Or even an old tree stump! Pretty much anything can be turned into a container for your favorite plants.

So roll up your sleeves, put on some sunscreen and start playing with some dirt! Before you know it, your yard will look like a garden oasis!

You can also check out the Pinterest board I've created just for you, It's alive! Living walls and fun container gardens. There are lots of great ideas for living walls and creative ideas for container gardens.

Have fun!