Free Gardening & Landscaping

Now that spring is here and you are ready to go out and do some gardening, here is a way you can go out and kind of spruce up some of your outdoor space with a really cute vertical flower garden that is put on wooden poles or dowels. This is a really neat way in which you can add some great floral accents to your garden area without using a bunch of space with those big pots or big flower boxes. This is a great way to utilize small spaces as well. This technique can be used well for even a small front or back porch where you don't have much space but what to have a little bit of a garden.

Before you begin you should know that this should take you around an hour to do. So, if you are considering taking some pots and painting them first to add even more color, you should paint them the day before so they will be dry when you need them. By the way you can make these vertical gardens as tall or as short as you want and you can make as many of them as you need. It's also a great project the kids can help with.

Things you will need to make your vertical flower garden:

• Wooden pole or poles/dowels. Make sure they are at least an inch across because they need to hold up under the weight of the flower pots. You can find these at any home and garden center.
• 4 clay pots for each pole (the amount depends upon how many little vertical gardens you want to make). The hole in the bottom of the pots need to be bigger than the poles.
• A minimum of 10 zip ties, this is extremely important.
• Flowers of your choice.
• Good potting soil.
• Paint if you are going to make the pots more colorful.

The instructions here are for a porch with a railing so the pots and poles can be secured. However you can do this on the side of your house or you can have a big pole and put it in the ground and build up from it. It's all up to what effect you are looking for. You also can paint your pole or poles and zip ties to match the color of your pots.

Take your pole and measure and cut it to fit nice and snug under your railing if putting on a porch. You can do this by putting the poles between the slats of the porch if you don't have any space in front of them.

Next take two zip ties and attach them very tightly to your pole or poles at the bottom around an inch up from the bottom of the pole. The ties need to be very tight so they don't slip down the pole when the flower pot is resting on the ties. After you have them in place you can then take your first pot and push it down to where the zip ties are and then tilt the pot just slightly to your left. Don't cut the ties yet, that's done at the end. Don't let the pot slip out of position before you get the dirt in it. It is easier to position things before the dirt.

Now put the soil in the first pot and then add your first flower. Make sure the soil is packed down tight around your flower. Make sure to put the flower in the soil at the same angle that the pot is tilted. You don't want to plant it pointing straight up in the air.

Next you will put two more zip ties right above the first bottom pot. This first tie is going to anchor the lip of the bottom pot and the second zip tie will anchor the next pot you put on the pole. Now you are ready to add the next pot and make sure that it rests on your highest zip tie and then tilt this pot in the opposite direction of your first pot. This one isn't going to be as sturdy as the first one until you get your soil in so hold it in place. It's a good idea to ask someone to help if you think you need help while you are filling it with soil. Once you've done this you can put in the next flower and continue on up the pole adding more pots, soil and flowers to whatever height you have chosen, alternating each pot as you go along.

Once you have finished adding all the pots and flowers that you want on your pole or poles you can then cut all the ties on the pole so they don't stick out because this would be unattractive. Put a little bit of wood glue for extra support on each tie if you feel more secure about it.

If you don't have much space indoors but you are still looking for an easy way that you can create a great indoor garden look in your home or apartment you might want to consider creating for yourself a cactus dish garden. You can have a small grouping of cacti or even a larger bowl that is spilling over with a nice array of succulents you can discover how to bring a little bit of nature inside with an indoor garden.

When you combine different kinds of cacti and succulents the arrangements can really look beautiful because of the different range of shapes, colors and textures you can find in these kinds of plants. You can easily create your very own desert landscape. The possibilities are actually endless and are only restricted to your own imagination, so be creative.

When it comes to the succulents, they offer an indoor garden geometrical form and some unique beauty all on their own but they really compliment each other when you plant different ones together in the same dish, bowl or pot. Experiment with different kinds of succulents to create a beautiful and interesting design in any room.

You will need a variety of supplies to get started:

• Make sure to get some very fast draining sandy mix. Often you will be able to find cactus potting mixes at your local garden center and this will work well for both cacti and succulents.
• Find the right kind of shallow container that you think will suit the design you might have in mind. Both cacti and succulents have rather shallow roots so the container only needs to be about three inches deep. The container also does not need to have drain holes if you use cactus potting mix.
• You will also need a small trowel that you will need to fill the cactus dish with the potting soil.
• Have a small and clean paintbrush on had. This will come in handy to help you clean off the plants once they are planted in your indoor garden.
• Don't forget to buy some small decorative pebbles and rocks for the top of your cactus dish garden.

Before you start planting your indoor garden make sure that you have all the right plants together and then sit them together in the container before potting soil is put in. This way you can see how they all look together in the container. You will need to give the indoor garden some focus so try using a couple taller plants to give the arrangement a focal point. If the garden is going to be against a wall in a corner of the room then put the taller ones in the back. However, if it is going to be in a more central location and viewed from all four sides you should put the taller plants in the center of your arrangement.

When you start putting the plants together make sure that you don't overcrowd them. You want to be able to show off the different contrasting plants so give them a little bit of space which will also give them some room to grow.

To put it all together, take the container and fill it halfway full with the cactus potting mix. The take each plant out of the pots they came in and place them in the new container one at a time. Just use your fingers to help spread the roots over the potting mix you laid down in the container.

After you have all the plants in place, in the arrangement you want them in you will then add more of the potting mix and fill up the container. It is important to make sure all the plants are sitting in the container at the same depth as they were in their original containers. Then just very lightly pat down the potting mix around each of the plants and leave around ½ inch of space below the rim of your container. This is to allow for watering the plants.

Take the small paintbrush and gently remove any potting soil you might have gotten on the plants during the planting stage.. Make sure to brush off all the succulent leaves and between all the cacti spines.

The last thing you will do is to add some small stones or pebbles on top of your soil when you are finished planting. This will give the indoor garden a more finished look and it will also fill in any gaps there might be.

When you are done planting it is important to water just the succulents with room temperature water. You should wait a few days before you water the cacti and then only very lightly for the first few waterings. Remember that cacti need much less water than the succulents.