A vertical flower bed is an interesting way to decorate your yard and garden. Photos of such compositions can often be seen on the websites of professional landscape designers.
But you can make a vertical composition of flowering plants yourself. And it is best to choose petunia for this, because this flower is unpretentious and very tenacious.
How to quickly decorate your yard, how to create vertical flower beds for petunias with your own hands - this is discussed in this article.
Varieties of vertical flower beds and flowers for them
Before building a vertical flower bed, you need to decide on its design. According to the method of fastening and type of support, they are distinguished:
- hanging flower beds;
- ground structures;
- wall compositions resting on the walls;
- wall flower beds mounted on the surface of the walls.
Any of these compositions goes well with such a hanging plant as petunia.
Petunia as a flowerbed decor is suitable in several ways:
- The plant is unpretentious.
- It takes root well and quickly, trapping a lump of earth between the roots.
- Does not require special care other than watering and fertilizing.
- Can grow in confined spaces with little substrate.
- The variety of varieties, shades and varieties of petunias allow you to create a unique composition that can decorate any landscape.
- It develops equally well in partial shade and in the sun. Tolerates direct sunlight well, but does not like shade.
- Blooms throughout the summer season.
To build a vertical flower bed, you do not need large material investments, and it will not take too much time. You can create such a composition from any available materials, spending only half an hour.
In principle, you can build vertical flower beds and flower beds from anything - it all depends on the imagination of the performer.
Vertical flower bed made of mesh
Metal mesh is often used to create vertical flower beds. There are several ways to create such a flower garden for petunia:
Mesh plus stones
This method will perfectly highlight the beauty of the landscape, which includes alpine slides, parapets or steps made of natural stones, and various ponds decorated with cobblestones. To implement such a project, the mesh needs to be bent in the shape of a snail, and there should be two layers - these are identical galvanized meshes running parallel to each other at a short distance. Stones are poured between the meshes: these can be pebbles or larger stones - it all depends on the size of the mesh cells. Soil is poured into the free space inside the “snail”, this is where the seeds are planted or petunia seedlings.
Mesh, flowerpot, geotextile
A cylinder is rolled out of a mesh with small cells.You can fix the shape with plastic clamps or wire. The cylinder is placed inside a large pot or flowerpot. The inside of the cylinder is lined with geotextile or other black fabric. Now fill the form with soil, the free space of the flowerpot is also filled with earth. Holes are cut through the mesh in the textile; it is better to place them in a checkerboard pattern. Use your finger to deepen the soil through the hole and plant petunia seedlings there. After some time, the plants will cover all the free space, and the cylinder will look like a flowering pillar.
Flowerbed made of plastic pipe
A vertical flowerbed made from a pipe can also be different - it all depends on what the owner of the site needs.
If the goal is to decorate an unsightly wall of a utility building or a neighbor’s fence, a method that involves cutting the pipe lengthwise is more appropriate. Any plastic (water or sewer) pipe is suitable for these purposes. It is necessary to cut a piece of the required length, cut the pipe lengthwise into two identical parts - you will get two full-fledged vertical flower beds.
The side parts of the pipe must be closed with plugs, then hang or attach the pipe to a vertical surface and fill the improvised flower bed with soil. All that remains is to sow the petunia.
The second method involves cutting the pipe crosswise. In appearance, such a flower garden is very similar to a flower bed made of mesh and geotextiles. In this case, two pipes of different diameters are needed: one large and the second smaller.
You need to make holes in both pipes:
- in a large pipe - for petunia;
- in the small one - for water.
A large pipe is buried in the ground or fixed vertically in any other way. A smaller pipe is installed inside it. The free space between the walls of the pipes is filled with a substrate for petunias mixed with the seeds of this hanging plant.
Vertical flower bed of flower pots
For this method, you can use not only new flower pots, but also any containers that are found in the house or on the site. These could be leaky pans, old buckets, etc. The main thing is to properly design the flowerbed, maintain the same style as the landscape, and also select containers of different diameters (from larger to smaller).
Another irreplaceable part in this method is a metal or wooden rod, the length of which should be slightly greater than the expected height of the flowerbed.
First, install the largest pot (or other container) in the place chosen for the vertical flower bed. Through a hole (either existing or made by hand) a rod is inserted into the bottom of the pot, the lower part of which must be inserted into the ground as deeply as possible for better fixation.
Now all that remains is to string the remaining containers onto the rod, assembling something like a children's pyramid. Soil is poured into all pots and petunias are planted. Such vertical petunia beds look more beautiful if plant varieties with long stems are chosen - hanging flowers will cover the unsightly part of the structure.
Do-it-yourself flower beds from improvised means
You can use anything:
- old shoes;
- bags or canvas bags;
- plastic or glass bottles;
- old furniture (chairs, chests of drawers);
- unnecessary dishes.
One of the easiest ways is to make your own vertical flower beds from car tires.
To implement this idea, the tires first need to be prepared: washed, dried, painted with bright colors.
Now a tower, pyramid or any other vertical structure is built from wheels. The resulting “structure” is filled with soil and petunia seeds are planted there.
This simple design will not only cost the owner nothing, but will also help rid the garage of unnecessary trash.
Advantages of vertical flower beds
We can talk endlessly about how to make a vertical flower bed with your own hands - there can be a lot of ideas for such a flower garden.
The popularity of vertical flower beds is explained by their versatility, because these designs:
- They take up a minimum of space, which is very convenient for small courtyards, terraces, gazebos and areas where it is not possible to create a regular flower garden.
- They are easy to maintain - to water the flower garden, you don’t have to pull out a long hose - just leave it near the flower bed.
- Quickly assembled and disassembled for storage until next season.
- Can be used repeatedly.
- Easily transported to another place on the site.
- They look impressive and unusual.
Vertical flower beds need to be watered and fertilized more often than regular flower beds.
There are a million answers to the question of how to make a vertical flower bed. Anyone who has at least a little imagination and a little desire can build such a structure with their own hands.