If you’ve got a boring-old wall, indoors or out, you can add beauty and life by building a living wall.

Living walls, also called vertical gardens, can be as simple as a set of shelves lined with houseplants, or as impressive as a vertical grid or frame bursting with greenery.

A few things to keep in mind: You still need to pay attention to what kind of light your plants will need. Many

common houseplants are tropical in origin, so they require bright, indirect light to thrive. Don’t put light-lovers on a dark wall and expect them to do well. If your design is not near a brightly-lit window, you can supplement with grow lights. Here are some of our favorite grow lights, if you need recommendations.

If you’re building your living wall yutdoors, you need to pay attention to sun exposure. Plants that need full sun require 6 or more hours of direct sunlight per day. Part sun is considered half that.

Also, plan how you’re going to water. Indoors, you’ll want to house plants in a container that collects excess water, so they aren’t dripping all over furniture and floors after watering.

You should also have a way to empty and remove excess water so that the plant’s roots don’t sit in water, which they do not like.

Self-watering containers are a good choice for living walls. They have reservoirs you fill that allow the plants to wick up water as needed.

Finally, if you’re hanging a large container, make sure you use the proper wall anchors, whether you’re mounting indoors into wallboard or outdoors in wood or masonry. You will need to accommodate the weight of both soil and plants.

Ahead, check out these living wall planter ideas for indoors and outdoors:

Source: countryliving.com