How to make your own stacking planters.

Hello!

I will not be truly happy until I have either a 'Garden Tower' or a 'Greenstalk' planter, or something very similar.  If you're not familiar, these are stacking vertical garden planters, that are sadly out of my budget and/or only sold in America.

But, never fear, I've come up with my own DIY versions.  Not quite as tall or exciting as the pre made ones, but I'm pretty pleased with what I've managed to come up with, with pots I had lying round the garden.

Example number one:

Three terracotta pots of different sizes stacked together. I've put a snapped off bit of bamboo cane through all of the holes in the bottoms of the pots, to help keep it steady.  Burying the bottom of each pot a little way down in the bigger one underneath will also help keep everything safe and secure.

I planted some strawberry runners in my DIY vertical terracotta planter, and they're really happy in there.

Example number two:

Round plastic pots. Stacked together in the same way as the terracotta ones.  I didn't put a stick through these, but they are all slightly buried in each other to keep them secure.  The big black pots are florists buckets, they sell them off sometimes in Morrisons £1 for 10. The smaller pots I've reused from other plants.

These have potatoes in the largest pot, some borlotto beans in the middle pot (well, there would have been borlotto beans if some slugs hadn't eaten them all!🤦‍♀️) And chard in the top pot. 

I grow potatoes in the big round pots anyway, so by adding more pots to this set up I get more vertical gardening space for practically no cost or effort!

Example number three:

Square pots. I had two of these square pots already, then I realized you could stack them on top of each other and make vertical potato planters.  The pots are £3 each from B&M, and the label says they're made from recycled and recyclable plastic.

I based this design off a 'Paul potato planter', which is from a German company and starts at  about £40 for the plastic version, as goes up into the hundreds for the stainless steel version. No shade for those prices, it's just not possible for me.  Thank goodness for B&M!

This is literally just 2 square planters carefully stacked diagonally.  The potato in the bottom pot has sent it's leaves through the gaps (just like I hoped it would 😊).  For these particular pots I could only stack 2 together, 3 was a bit heavy and wobbly.

You could probably do this with all sorts of square and rectangular pots, so if you have some give it a go and see if you can make them into a vertical garden. 

Overall I'm pretty pleased with my cobbled together vertical planters.  It always pleases me to grow as much as I can in a small place, and you can never have too many potatoes!

Do you have any DIY stacking planters in your garden?

See you soon, love, Susie Moon xx