*This is a sponsored post on behalf of Lowe’s.
As a Lowe’s Creative Blogger, I was given the challenge of coming up with some Outdoor Décor for our August Challenge. I have been wanting to “hide” the large and ugly retaining wall that is right by outside entrance to our back deck.
We had tried to grow a couple of different plants to hide the wall without a lot of success and I just wasn’t happy with the overall look of the whole area. I knew I wanted something “growing” on the wall but I was not sure how to go about it.
I had seen some grass walls but many of the ones I had seen required drilling into the concrete and we didn’t want to get that involved with this project. I thought about doing a pallet garden, but after a bit of research we decided to come up with our own design :)!
We made it so that it was free standing and did not have to hang on the wall. We have secured it and buried it deep into the dirt so that it is stable and will not blow over in the wind. We plan to store it in the garage during the winter months.
I will be sharing our tutorial here in a later post in case any of you are interested in making your own or making something similar. If you are interested in how we made the large redwood flower planter that is sitting on top of the retaining wall, you can find the tutorial here:
I am really happy with how it turned out. I was worried that the dirt would spill out once we stood it up and that the flowers would be unable to grow in the planter. This is a south facing wall and gets about 8 hours of full sun every day. The only thing is that you have to be pretty careful when you water it and just use a light sprinkling of water otherwise it is easy to wash out some dirt. I learned this the hard way :)!
I love how it brings a ton of color and visual interest to the area now. It is actually a nice focal point rather than being a big ugly eye-sore…well…that is…it was. It grew nicely for about 2 months and was filling out rather nicely…(we work 3 months ahead with Lowe’s so we actually made this in early May and had to wait till August to post it) then we went on vacation for a week. Our automatic sprinkler that we had specifically set to water both the vertical garden and the DIY Flower Planter on top of the wall (a tall pop up sprinkler) somehow stopped working. A week of 90-100 degree temps without water killed all of the flowers. :/ I will share a picture of the deadness when I share the tutorial. (#keepingitreal)
Ugh! I thought about replacing them but decided it wasn’t worth the time and efforts this late in the summer and the flower selection was pretty slim this late in the summer. So…we will have to wait for next Spring and replant. But it was really great while it lasted!!
For more great ideas, you’ll love browsing through:
Creative Ideas Website – This is one of my favorite DIY Magazines, and it’s free!
Creative Ideas App– Download for quick inspiration.
Lowe’s Creative Ideas Pinterest Boards
Lowe’s Home Improvement on Instagram
Lowe’s Home Improvement on Facebook
*Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. Lowe’s provided me with a gift card to showcase a project this month as part of their Lowe’s Creative Ideas Bloggers team. However all opinions and statements are mine.
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Beautiful planter with a sad ending! Same thing happened to one of my main focal point planting areas when we were gone. I feel your pain. ;) next year……
Thanks Joanna! I had high hopes for it. LOL! Next year indeed!
I LOVE it!! I made a vertical free standing herb garden out of a pallet back in April. It was such a quick and easy project. I really love how yours turned out! (I also went out of town for a week, and with no watering my herbs aren’t as pretty as they once were!) Love that long planter you have above it, too. Can’t wait to see your tutorial for this, I may have to give it a try!!
I absolutely love this idea!!! It’s stunning!!!!!
Thank you so much Michele! I will have to wait till next summer to see how full it fills out! :)
For verticel planter, option could be planting succulents then you wouldn’t have to worry much about watering. I think you could plant them in moss. Or you could use silk flowers and ivy—-that oils also be pretty!
I absolutely love this….did you have to plant it first horizontal…than switch it to vertical???
Yes. We planted it while it was laying flat. We let it sit flat for a week and then turned it vertical.
Love this idea. I, too, have a wall that I want to over up. I may have missed something, but am not seeing te tutorial on how it was made. Can you please either share it or let me know where I can find it at. Thanks.
When u next set the trellis planter back up first line the inside front with weed mat or some form of mesh and just put small holes in to plant and the matting will help keep dirt in.
Great suggestion. Thanks.