Bring Life to Outdoor Walls With Nature's Green
Use vines, vertical gardens, trellises, screens, espaliers and more to transform your exterior walls
Whether you live in an apartment building or a single-family home, chances are there’s a blank wall or vertical surface on your home’s exterior that could benefit from added interest. Filling or covering a blank wall with plants is one of the easiest ways to add appeal, and plants also bring a touch of nature to a man-made space. For inspiration, take a look at these 13 planting designs that rely on flowering vines, espaliers, hanging gardens and more to help transform blank walls into garden focal points.
2. Pair a vine with potted plants. This is a great combination for entryways, garden sheds or along the side of a garage, because it adds interest at multiple viewpoints. Climbing fig (Ficus pumila, zones 9 to 11), planted here with potted foxtail agave (Agave attenuata, zones 9 to 11), thrives in partial shade and fills in rapidly to cover vertical surfaces with tendrils that feature dime-sized leaves.
Find the right vine for your garden
Find the right vine for your garden
3. Hang a miniature vertical garden. Framed vertical gardens can be tucked into small nooks, helping to break up a blank wall the same way wall art does inside. Mount one next to the back door, or hang a trio of them across the exterior wall of a garden shed.
4. Pair decorative metal panels with leafy greens. Metal screens featuring geometric patterns mixed with foliage plants create a bold garden statement. In this California garden, vines grow up the sides to frame the panels.
Here’s another example of a metal screen mixed with planting. This time the plants emerge from a built-in planter at the base of the screen, helping to anchor it more in the overall design.
5. Display air plants on a trellis. Add air plants to a wall-mounted metal trellis for a clever, quick way to spruce up a blank wall. Air plants need no soil to grow (keeping walls clean) and thrive in areas with bright, indirect light. Every week or so, depending on your climate and air moisture, remove the plants from the trellis and soak them in a bucket of water.
Learn more about growing air plants
Learn more about growing air plants
6. Create a planted wall pattern. Geometric patterns made from trained evergreen vines look fancy and aren’t too difficult to achieve if you don’t mind frequent clipping.
Start by establishing your desired pattern with wires fastened with nails or eye hooks to the desired wall or fence. Then, plant a vine like trailing ivy or star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides, Zone 8) to grow along the lines of the trellising, cutting or rewrapping any shoots that stick out from the structure.
Start by establishing your desired pattern with wires fastened with nails or eye hooks to the desired wall or fence. Then, plant a vine like trailing ivy or star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides, Zone 8) to grow along the lines of the trellising, cutting or rewrapping any shoots that stick out from the structure.
Here, Asian jasmine (Trachelospermum asiaticum, Zone 8) was trained in a diamond pattern to cover the wall of a guesthouse in New Orleans.
7. Install a living wall. Custom living wall systems can be expensive to have installed, but the popularity of vertical gardening has resulted in more consumer-friendly (and budget-friendly) planting options. Wall-mounted planting pockets or vertical planters, for example, can cost significantly less and can be installed without extensive structural or watering systems.
Tip: Including some trailing plants — like ivy, pothos, philodendron or grass-like carex — can help conceal the vertical growing structure.
Learn more about how to add a living wall
Tip: Including some trailing plants — like ivy, pothos, philodendron or grass-like carex — can help conceal the vertical growing structure.
Learn more about how to add a living wall
8. Mount a staghorn fern. Staghorn ferns (Platycerium bifurcatum) are air plants, called epiphytes, and have evolved to grow without soil on tree trunks and branches in mild, tropical and semitropical climates. They can thrive in home gardens in similar conditions, mounted to a board with a few handfuls of damped sphagnum moss. Hang one inside or out to liven up a blank wall in a spot with bright, indirect light.
Learn more about growing staghorn ferns
Learn more about growing staghorn ferns
9. Add an elegant espalier. Training a tree into an espalier against a wall adds a formal touch to a garden or courtyard and saves valuable planting space. You can purchase a tree already staked as an espalier or train one yourself, if the tree is between three and five years old and still has finger-width-sized lateral branches.
If you’re planning to train the espalier yourself, plant the tree against a wall and add trellising to support the espalier structure. Then, choose the primary lateral branches (often in matched pairs for a symmetrical form) and gently pull them down into straight, horizontal lines, fastening them to the trellising. Remove other lateral branches and cut the top part of the trunk where it meets the top of the trellis to encourage lateral growth.
If you’re planning to train the espalier yourself, plant the tree against a wall and add trellising to support the espalier structure. Then, choose the primary lateral branches (often in matched pairs for a symmetrical form) and gently pull them down into straight, horizontal lines, fastening them to the trellising. Remove other lateral branches and cut the top part of the trunk where it meets the top of the trellis to encourage lateral growth.
10. Allow trailing plants to cascade off the roof. Place potted plants on flat-roofed sheds and outbuildings, allowing vines to trail down the sides of the building for a creative, unexpected look. Place roof pots on saucers to catch excess water or make sure the roof is sloped enough for quick drainage.
11. Frame wall art with plants. Wall art doesn’t need to be reserved to rooms inside the house. Outdoor seating areas backed by a blank wall are great spots for hanging a wall sculpture designed for outdoor use, an interesting piece of driftwood or a decorative wrought iron panel. Plants growing on either side of the art piece can soften the design and grow up to frame the art.
12. Mount pots filled with herbs and succulents. Turn a blank wall into a garden by mounting planters, terra-cotta pots or other grouped containers of your choice.
Keep in mind that smaller pots placed in full sun against a heat-reflecting wall will dry out quickly. To counteract these effects, set up a drip irrigation system, be diligent about hand watering or choose heat-loving, drought-tolerant succulents or cactuses.
Keep in mind that smaller pots placed in full sun against a heat-reflecting wall will dry out quickly. To counteract these effects, set up a drip irrigation system, be diligent about hand watering or choose heat-loving, drought-tolerant succulents or cactuses.
13. Showcase architectural plants. Take advantage of a blank wall to show off structural plant forms. Look for plants like large-scale cactuses or multitrunk trees that naturally have an interesting shape. The landscape designer for this Los Angeles garden used a curved entry wall to show off the form of spiked MacDougall’s century plants (Furcraea macdougalii, zones 9 to 11).
Your turn: What have you done to liven up blank walls in your garden? Tell us or show us with a picture in the Comments.
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How to Turn an Ugly Wall Into a Feature
Work with a landscape architect near you
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How to Turn an Ugly Wall Into a Feature
Work with a landscape architect near you
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