What exactly is vertical garden? Well, it is the answer to your lack of greenery at home and lack of space issue. Hong Kong is a concrete jungle with limited space, and getting that little bit of green when you are not trotting around the islands in Hong Kong or hiking seems to be ever so difficult.

Studies have shown that looking at green plants are good for your eyes and mood, but you are looking around your apartment and wondering how on Earth are you going to fit it all in? Well fret not my friends, here is a little guide to getting yourself a vertical garden.

Vertical garden

The idea of vertical garden is that, well, the garden is vertical. It will take up less space in your apartment or balcony while simultaneously looking super duper cool. Taking the sizes of Hong Kong apartments into account, we have found 5 good vertical garden ideas for you to try at home. In fact, these are not that dissimilar to the DIYs to save space that we did a couple months ago!

• Ladder/book case turned garden

  

  This one is a little bit of a cheat, since all you are doing is turning an existing vertical space into a plant holder. Stack some small potted plants and arrange them in neat rows – you can even add some little figurines in between to make it pop out even more.

• Plant mounts

This one involves a little more DIY skills than the last one. You would need plants, hooks, a wooden frame and buckets plus a bit of drilling and hammering to put them all together. However, this will look really pretty hanging on the walls of your home, although for conveniences’ sake, you might want to use faux plants…

• Stack them up in Mason Jars

Mason jars are all the rage at the moment, and the ingredients to this hipster looking vertical garden are cheap and plentiful. All you need is wood, threaded rods, bolt and mason jars, plus some of your favourite plants, of course. You would, however, need to find somewhere to hang them from, whether it’s your ceiling or off a shelf. You can find the tutorial here.

• Recycle water bottles

If mason jar is a bit too dangerous for you, then maybe consider using plastic bottles. The principle is similar to the one with mason jars, however you might want to keep this one closer to a wall. All you need to do is cut a reasonable sized opening on one side of the bottle as it laid horizontal and string them all together. The tutorial is here.

• Frame it and hang it

By far the prettiest option but also the most difficult one. Find yourself some shallow root plants, small plastic trays (you can even recycle some yogurt pots for this!) and plant them within a wooden frame at a 30-degree angle. Don’t forget to poke some holes for drainage and cover the back with something impermeable, but leaving plenty of breathing room and and escape for the water below. Again, this might be easier with faux plant – but that would defy the name of vertical garden.