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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Fence Gardens - 3 Types - DIY

Today at the Free Farm, we completed 3 projects that will grow on the fence. Our goal is to get some plants growing on the fence to make the space look prettier (both inside and out) and to create a noise barrier from all the street noise.

Here are three easy do-it-yourself projects that would be easy for you to complete on your own.

Our first project is the easiest. Take a plant that grows quickly like a vine, and likes to climb and train it to climb a fence. How do you train a plant? I used twine. It's as easy as gently tying it to the fence guiding it in the direction you want it to grow.

The photo to the left is of a Marsh Mallow (yup that's it's real name) that was growing wild near the fence at the Farm. So, I trained it to climb the fence and labeled the plant so that it could be read on both sides of the fence.

The second project, is also very simple. In fact all I did was fill a metal container with soil (potting soil + horse manure), plant a passion fruit and train the vine to attach to the fence. The passion fruit also has some support from some bamboo shoots to help it get to the fence and grow tall.

As you can see from the photo above, we needed the container because this section of the garden has concrete on it. If your fence is next to soil, you can plant right into the ground.

The third project is a little more complicated, but only took an hour from start to finish. I made a small pocket out of potato sacks and chicken wires. Then I filled it with dirt and planted a nasturtium and trained it to the fence.

Click here if you would like the complete instructions on how to make the vertical garden pocket on a fence.

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