If you live in an apartment, a vertical garden is the perfect way to utilize your balcony space, and allows you to grow your own fruits, vegetables and herbs. Because the vertical walls are modular units, you can design your wall to suit your unique space. Try growing tomatoes in the top units. Because the vines will hang down, you won’t need to stake your plants. Cherry tomatoes do especially well, and will keep you in supply for quite some time.

?Some herbs are especially well suited to vertical walls, particularly those that usually grow low to the ground, such as oregano and mint, which will hang in a vertical wall. Thyme comes in many varieties, and makes a wonderful feature wall. Try mixing golden thyme with lemon thyme to create a wall design with variations in colour and aroma. An added bonus is that these herbs will also bloom.

You can also create decorative green walls for the balcony or indoor areas. Jasmine stays green all year and creates a natural wall of aromatherapy in spring. Decorative grasses also create visually interesting walls, as do lush ferns.

Vertical walls can be used in a huge variety of ways in larger homes. In the home, they create beautiful room dividers that also help to increase oxygen in the home. In the kitchen, a vertical wall means you always have fresh herbs on hand, and in the bathroom, a vertical wall can act as a unique privacy screen that also creates a tranquil and relaxing environment.

Outside the home, vertical walls are an excellent solution for creating structure in larger gardens, or garden ‘rooms’. If your garden is smaller, converting an ordinary fence to a vertical wall can increase your planting capacity, and if you live close to your neighbours, it can also help to reduce noise.

The perfect mix of beauty and ecology, vertical walls make the perfect addition to any home.