How to Create a Plant Wall or Living Wall at Home - Happy DIY Home (2024)

Want to create a living wall or plant wall at home?

Vertical gardens. Green walls. Corporate offices, hotel lobbies, and airport or shopping center atriums have used these eye-catching living walls as decorations for years. You can find them mounted on the inside or outside of buildings, and they can vary in shape and size. They offer anyone who sees them a breath of fresh air with a vibrant green space that gives them all of the benefits of nature just by existing.

Living walls improve air quality and remove toxins from the air, as plants on the living plant wall turn carbon dioxide into oxygen.

In the past decade, having living walls has become a mainstay, and they’re now very common in the living room in apartment buildings, businesses, and residential homes where space is at a premium. Anyone who doesn’t have to floor space for all of the plants they want can use their vertical space and a few pretty plants to bring the green indoors or liven up the outdoors.

What is a Plant Wall or Living Wall

A plant wall system or living wall system is a fixed modular system on which plants are grown vertically. These wall systems can cover a whole wall or part of one, and is sometimes also known as a green wall.

Living Wall vs. Vertical Gardens

Aren’t living walls and vertical gardens the same? Even though people use the names interchangeably, they’re not the same thing. If you create a living wall, you’re creating the plant wall art with a fixed modular system.

A vertical garden uses a more traditional build. You use everything from containers to pergolas to create a vertical garden. Vertical gardens are also very popular. The vertical garden can be a great way to spruce up any apartment.

Living Wall Origins

Although the concept of a living wall or plant wall is just recently popular, the living wall has a rich and ancient history. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon date back to 600 B.C. and were one of the first mentions of a vertical living wall with an irrigation system built in. These living wall gardens were supposed to be an engineering feat with multiple tiers of flowers and plants stretching across brick walls. King Nebuchadnezzar II built this living wall to make his wife happy after she moved to marry him.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are one of the ancient world’s Seven Wonders that archaeologists can’t provide an exact location for. However, there are several possible places in Iraq that could have been home to this glorious living garden. Even if the living wall gardens didn’t exist, they’re inspiration for today’s living walls.

In the 1930s, Stanley Hart White invented green wall hydroponic systems. He was a professor at the University of Illinois, and he called his early prototypes Botanical Bricks. He patented the wall planters in 1939, and these designs are what many people draw from to create modern living walls.

Patrick Blanc is another well-known name for helping take the concept of vertical gardens worldwide. Not only has he written several books on the subject, but he’s designed and implemented several living walls throughout the world. He uses polyamide felt that encases a PVC or metal base. The felt mimics moss and helps the plants take root. He soaks the felt in a nutrient mix, and the framework recirculates any leftover water to keep the plants thriving.

You can see examples of Patrick Blanc’s work of wall art if you visit Sydney’s Central Park, Berlin’s Lafayette Galleries, or New Delhi’s French Embassy. This is what we’re going to guide you to build for yourself below.

An example of climbing ivy that has taken over the exterior of a home to form a living wall.

How to Create an Indoor or Outdoor Living Wall – Step-by-Step

Creating the base for your living wall or hanging planter, whether indoor or outdoor, is very similar. Your plants will vary. Before you start, you’ll need to gather all of your materials and tools. For tools, you’ll need for the plant wall:

• 3/4-inch square spacer (optional)
• Clamps
• Level
• Pencil
• Power drill
• Sandpaper
• Scissors
• Staple gun
• Stud finder
• Table saw
• Tape measure
• Trowel

Once you have all of your tools, you’ll want to gather your materials. Again, you can use this base for both indoor and outdoor living walls. Your materials for the plant wall include:

• 1 x 4-1/2 x 20-3/4-inch board
• 1-1/4-inch deck screws
• 1-inch by 3-inch by 8-foot board
• 1-inch by 6-inch by 8-foot board
• 2-1/2-inch deck screws
• ¾-inch plywood
• Exterior glue
• Fast-draining cacti and succulent soil
• Landscape material, 4 by 5 feet
• Plants
• Plastic sheeting, 4 by 5 feet
• Staples
• Plant wall anchors (optional)

Step One – Cut a French Cleat

A French cleat is an easy and cheap way to hang heavier shelves. Get a ¾ piece of plywood and rip it down to around four inches wide. Move the saw blade until it’s at a 45-degree angle while setting the fence to two inches. Rip your plywood down to 45-degrees. If you only have a single piece of plywood, you can rip th edge of the wood to 45-degrees and cut the wood to size. The goal is to end up with two 45-degree angles that will lock together.

Using a table saw to prepare your board for the French cleat cut.

Step Two – Measure Your Plant Wall

Decide where you’d like to hang your living wall. For the best results, find a sturdy outside wall or an interior wall that has linoleum or hardwood flooring under it. This will make cleaning up any accidental spills easy. Figure out where you want your living walls to be, measure and mark a spot that is two feet wide by three feet tall.

To make sure the framework stays up, use a stud finder. Mark where you want to drill, and measure four inches down and make another light mark. Line up your French cleat boards at the center. The more narrow end should be against the plant wall with the angled side up. You may have to adjust the board until you hit studs. Use a level to make sure it’s straight. If you use wall anchors, this is where you’d attach them. Screw 2 ½-inch screws to attach the cleat.

Step Three – Build the Plant Wall’s Frame

Once you have your French cleat in place, it’s time to build the frame. To do this, line up two 36-inch long boards. They should be parallel to one another. Then, line up two 22 ¼-inch boards perpendicular to your 36-inch long boards to make a rectangle. Each corner should be flush against the other. Next, pre-drill your holes in the corners. Glue together the boards and screw in three 2 ½-inch screws from the outside of your 36-inch boards through the ends of the 22 ¼-inch boards to fasten the frame together.

Thinner pieces of wood you’d us to build the frame for your plant wall.

Step Four – Attach Your Supports

Along the frame’s longer edge, line up your longer ¾-inch supports. The edges should line up flush with the bottom of your frame, and you want to lay them out horizontally. Pre-drill your holes. From the inside of the frame, drill 1 ¼-inch screws through the supports, and add glue for a tight fit.

Get the shorter support and line it up on the shorter edges on the frame’s interior. It should rest between the longer supports and sit flush with the frame’s bottom. From the inside of the frame, drill 1 ¼-inch screws through the supports and apply glue. Next, go to the opposite end of the frame.

Attach your second half of the French cleat you cut in step one along the frame’s shorter edge. The square side should rest against the frame with the longer, angled edge sitting flush with the frame’s bottom. From the outside of the frame, screw in 1 ¼-inch screws and apply glue.

Step Five – Form the Plant Wall’s Floor With Slats

Line up your first slat along the frame’s longer edge. This slat should be on top of the French cleat and the frame’s supporting pieces you attached in step four. If it’s needed, get a clamp to hold it in place. Pre-drill holes on the bottom of either end of your frame. Screw in your 1 ¼-inch screws and apply glue to hold them. Repeat this process with all of your slates.

If you want to make sure everything is even, use a ¾-inch spacer between each slat for the plant wall. If you don’t have a spacer, lay out all of your slats before you begin attaching them. You need enough room for all seven to fit comfortably. For the two slats at the end, add two or three additional screws. This will give them extra support so they don’t collapse. When you attach everything, sand down any rough edges.

The floor of your framework will have seven slats. The slats should have a small ¾-inch space between them in even increments.

Step Six – Add a Plastic Liner

Now that you have your frame and floor built for your living walls, it’s time to add the plastic liner that will act like a barrier between the soil and water and your frame and interior or exterior plant wall. To start, lay your frame horizontally on your work surface. Line the sides and bottom of the frame with plastic sheeting.

The plastic should lie flat on the sides and bottom of the frame’s interior. Clamps will secure your plastic sheeting along the edges. When you have the plastic flat and secured in place with your clamps, flip your frame over. Staple along the bottom of the frame. For the best results, put one staple every two or three inches to prevent accidental leaks.

Step Seven – Add the First Layer of Landscape Fabric

If all the staples are in and anchoring your plastic liner in place, flip the frame back over. Lay the landscaping fabric over your plastic layer. Smooth it out and repeat the same steps you used for anchoring the plastic liner in place. The first layer of landscape fabric will lay flat against the bottom and walls of your frame. Clamp it in place and flip it back over. Staple the landscape fabric to the sides of the frame. Trim any extra material you have hanging over the bottom of the frame.

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This landscape fabric is four by fifty feet, and it has a slightly heavier design to help hold the soil in and protect your plant wall from any water or dampness. It’s easy to cut and install.

Step Eight – Add the Second Layer of Landscape Fabric

Your frame should be right side up for this step. Stretch your second layer of landscape fabric over the top of your frame. It should be very taut against the edges. Once you stretch it, flip the frame over. The goal is to have the material centered underneath the frame.

Wrap the landscape fabric around the frame. Tuck in the corners, and staple all around the frame. Again, you want your staples every two or three inches to secure it. It’s critical that you don’t tear or rip this layer of landscape fabric, and it should be firmly anchored in place with the staples. This is the only thing that will hold your soil into your living walls and keep it off your floor. Flip your frame so it’s right side up.

Step Nine – Cut Plant Slits and Add Soil

To start, cut three slits in your landscape fabric. You should stagger them in different areas, and they should be between six and eight inches long. Get a trowel and scoop your soil into your living wall through these slits. Be careful not to tear it. Add soil until your frame is full, but you don’t want it packed. Some soil may slip out when you set the frame upright, but you can always add more later.

The soil you choose for your wall should drain very quickly to prevent drowning your plants or causing root rot.

Step Ten – Add Your Chosen Plants

The plants you choose will depend on whether or not you want to have an indoor or outdoor living wall. For both indoor and outdoor living walls, succulents and vegetables are very popular. Reach through the existing slits you cut in the fabric and remove a small amount of soil. Pick out a slightly larger plant and loosen the roots. Shake them gently to get rid of most of the dirt. Tuck the plant’s roots through the slit.

Push into the soil and use your hands to push the dirt down near the plant’s base. Repeat this step until you fill the larger slits. When you run out of room, cut smaller slits in the fabric wherever you’d like your plants. Remember to leave at least two or three inches between the plants so they can spread out as they grow.

You want to choose your plants for your plant wall carefully. Succulents are some of the most popular choices because they’re easy to maintain and don’t need a lot of water or space.

Step 11 – Hang Your Living Wall

When you get all of your plants arranged to your liking, it’s time to hang your living wall. Get someone else to help you lift it because it’ll be heavy. If you chose to make an indoor living wall, it’s a good idea to get a tarp and lay it down to catch any spills. Tilt your frame so your French cleat’s edge is up. Set your living wall’s frame against your interior or exterior wall and gently slide it down until the edges of the cleats meet.

Don’t let go of your plant wall until you’re sure it’s centered and has an even weight distribution. Your plants will most likely come loose or tip at this point, and you can straighten them later. Water your living wall really well the first time, and continue to water them weekly to encourage healthy growth.

Plant Wall Ideas: Picking the Correct Plants for Your Living Wall

Now that you know how to make a living wall, you need to know which plants will do best depending on the location where you hang it. Certain plants won’t do as well indoors as they will outdoors and vice versa.

Outdoor Full Shade Plants Plant Wall Ideas

If you plan to hang your plant wall outside, how much sun does it get every day? If your plant wall will get full to partial shade, you’ll have to adjust your plants accordingly or they’ll die. A few outdoor shade plants you can have in your plant wall include:

• Begonias
• Bleeding Heart
• Deadnettle
• Hardy Plumbago
• Herman’s Pride Archangel
• Heuchera
• Miniature Mat Daisy
• Pachysandra
• Periwinkle
• Rocky Mountain Columbine
• Succulents
• Turk’s Cap Siberian Lily

Begonias flower in the early spring and continue through the summer months. They have large leaves and big flowers.

Outdoor Partial Shade Plants Plant Wall Ideas

Maybe the area where you want to have your indoor plant wall has partial shade. This means it gets sunlight for part of the day, usually in the morning hours before transitioning to shade in the early afternoon and evening. Popular varieties for this type of indoor plant wall include:

• Bluebells
• Coral Bells
• Foxglove
• Golden Columbine
• Japanese forest grass
• Lady’s mantle
• Little Treasure Columbine
• Marion Sampson Scarlet Monardella
• Primrose
• Red Flowered Lamb’s Ear
• Siskiyou Blue Festuca Grass
• Soapwort
• Spurge
• Western Wood Lily

Outdoor Full Sun Plants

Finally, we have the indoor plant wall that will be in the sun for the majority of the day. Shade plants will burn and wither in these conditions, but the following plants do very well on the indoor plant wall:

• Blanket flower
• Butterfly weed
• Campanula
• Columbine
• Coreopsis
• Lavender
• Peony
• Purple coneflower
• Russian sage
• Sedum
• Shasta daisy
• Yarrow

Peony’s produce bright flowers in a range of colors from soft pinks to white, and they don’t need a lot of water to thrive.

Indoor Plants Plant Wall Ideas

Artificial light can be harsh on certain plants, and you have to factor in the light as well. Most houseplants will be lower light plants or partial shade. Unless your indoor plant wall is right in front of a window that gets sunlight for the majority of the day, a few popular choices include:

• Aglaonemas
• Brazil philodendron
• Bromeliads
• Croton
• English ivy
• Maidenhair
• Medusa fern
• Peace lily
• Pothos
• Rabbit foot
• Snake plant
• Song of India
• Succulents

Other Indoor and Outdoor Plant Wall Ideas for Your Living Wall

You don’t have to stick to traditional ornamental or flowering plants for your indoor plant wall. Depending on your lighting, you can choose virtually anything you like from herbs, edible plants, hanging and climbing species, and more. Popular choices for your indoor plant wall include:

• Basil
• Honeysuckle
• Hops
• Ivy
• Laburnum
• Marjoram
• Peppers
• Rosemary
• Strawberries
• Thyme
• Tomatoes
• Wisteria

Ivy creates a dramatic look for any plant wall because it cascades downward toward the floor.

Watering Your Living Wall

There is very little soil in your green wall for the amount of plants in it, and this makes watering it even more important. There are several ways you can go about watering your setup. Hand watering is going to be one of the least expensive ways to go. Just remember that the plants on the bottom will naturally get more water than the plants on the top.

If you have the room for a water tank, you can set up an irrigation system at the top of your plant wall that will drip water down the frame on a consistent basis. The water collects in a trough on the bottom and cycles back up to start the process over. The amount of water you’ll need depends on the plants you choose. Some are very resistant to drought while others need more.

Fertilizing Your Living Wall

It’s essential that you fertilize your plants to keep them healthy. Plants that grow in the ground get a lot of their nutrients from the soil. The lack of soil in this setup means that you’ll have to provide the nutrients through fertilizer. If you have an irrigation system, you can mix fertilizer right into the water. If you don’t have one, you can mix fertilizer into your water when you water by hand once every few weeks. The type of fertilizer, strength, and how often you apply it depends on the plants.

Pruning and General Upkeep

You’ll eventually have to prune and perform general maintenance on your plants to keep the plant wall healthy. If you notice any dead or dying leaves, prune them off to make room for new growth. If you plan to grow edible plants or vegetables, harvest the crops so you don’t end up with an overgrown or rotten plant wall.

Even though the chances are very slim that you’ll end up with a lot of weeds, keep an eye out for them. If you see them, take them out without disturbing the rest of your plants. You should also be aware that you may find yourself switching your plant’s location. The plants at the bottom may get too much water and have to get switched to the top to get drier conditions to grow.

Pruning your plants will help encourage new growth and keep them healthy year-round.

Whatever you choose to do, you can grow a thriving plant wall or living wall that adds a unique element and texture to your home or office. You can use this step-by-step living wall guide to create a plant wall of any size, both indoors and out.

You can also look into vertical gardens for more related ideas. A beautiful vertical garden is a great addition to any home.