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Once I'd completed my floating pallet deck, I knew I wanted to add some texture and life to that space with greenery. Since the footprint of the deck itself is pretty small, offering very little room for planters or pots, I decided to build my shade garden upwards. And once the 40+ years of mould and neglect had been power washed off, the back of the shed provided a perfect canvas for my vertical garden.
Still reeling from the price of lumber, I knew I'd need to get creative to build the slat wall structure. I wanted something that was inexpensive and could be taken down and stored during the winter. Bed slats seemed like - and proved to be - an ideal solution.
Here's how I tackled this super simple project:
1. Measure
I figured out how much of the back of the shed I wanted to cover with my vertical garden and, based on those measurements, I determined the size of slats I'd need (Twin, Queen, King, etc.)
2. Gather the Materials
Aside from pots and plants, this project only required three items:
Bed slats - I used Queen-sized Luroy slats from IKEA
Spray paint - I used Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch in Satin Espresso
Siding hooks - I found these on Amazon and they are perfect for vinyl siding, allowing you to hang things on the side of your house, garage, or shed without having to drill holes!
3. Cut & Paint
Luckily, the bed slats are very easy to cut to the appropriate height, since the wood is connected by ribbon that is easily cut with a pair of scissors. Next, I sanded the slats to take a bit of the varnish off. I used a damp rag to remove the dust before applying two coats of spray paint. It took 1.5 cans of spray paint to cover the two panels.
4. Reinforce & Hang
While the slats and ribbons are both quite strong, they're joined together with only 1-2 staples per slat. I chose to reinforce the connections with additional staples before attaching the siding hooks to the back of the shed and hanging the slats off them.
5. Plant
I decided to use hanging planters I found at the dollar store, filling them with a combination of shade-loving annuals and perennials. I wanted plants that would help make the wall feel full, so I selected mostly spiller and trailing plants that would fill in as they grew, including:
English Ivy
Peppermint
Catnip
Maidenhead Fern
Jacob's Ladder
Purple Leaf Begonia
Lesson Learned the Hard Way: Avoid hanging too much weight on the slats.
Not only can adding too much weight potentially cause the ribbon and staples to give out, it can impact how the baskets hang. Since only the top slat is truly affixed to the shed wall, the rest hang freely and are prone to rotation. Heavy and/or deep baskets don't sit correctly, tipping awkwardly as the slats twist.
I bought a few hanging planters to try out and once I found ones that I liked and that worked well, I went out and bought enough to cover the wall.
The Result
I love how this project turned out! It was so easy and inexpensive to complete but it makes such a big impact in an otherwise dreary space. The planters can be easily rearranged or swapped out, and come winter I can simply unhook the slats, fold 'em up, and store them until next spring.
Lesson Learned the Hard Way: Squirrels are jerks.
Within a few days of hanging my baskets up, I came out to discover one had been ruthlessly tossed off the wall, the dirt flung far and wide, the poor plant dumped roots-up. My fern had literally hit the deck. Of course, squirrels love to dig in plant pots and what I unwittingly did was build them a very convenient ladder, allowing them easy access to my plant babies.
I made a few tweaks to the arrangement and, thanks to a Google recommendation, added some squirrel-repelling peppermint oil drops to the slat wall. I'm pleased to report that the little dirt munchers haven't attempted to scale the garden since.
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