When you think of hanging planters, you usually picture large, lush trailing plants, cascading down from hanging baskets.
So I had a bit of a dilemma with this month’s Urban Jungle Bloggers topic: hanging planters.
You see, I do have a couple of trailing plants. But right now they are quite tiny, and wouldn’t make much of an impact on their own.
Here is my Seddum Burrito succulent.
As you can see, it is very small.
Although, this is what it could look like eventually …
But when I got thinking further about how to approach this month’s post, I realised that a hanging planter didn’t necessarily have to be a traditional basket.
In fact, it could be the perfect solution to display my five little succulents and make more of a feature of them. They usually sit on the shelf of a bookcase. And because of their size, they can get a bit lost.
So I decided to create a vertical hanging planter for my succulents. With Samuel‘s help, we came up with a design together, and made one using off-cuts of birch ply and some chain from a hardware store.
And these are the results:
If you would like to have go at making one yourself, here’s a little tutorial for you about how we made it.
How to make a Vertical Hanging Planter for Succulents
First, we decided on the height of the vertical hanging planter and cut the chain into four equal lengths.
Samuel measured the diameter of the succulent pot under the rim. He cut six squares from off-cuts of plywood, proportionally larger in size than the pots. Five were for each of the pots, and an extra as a top spacer.
He then drew diagonal lines from corner to corner on five of the pieces – in order to find the centre.
Using a pillar drill (with a cutter a couple of millimeters smaller than the diameter of the pot) he drilled a hole through the five squares. And we then tested them to check the fit.
Next, using a belt sander, we sanded all of the edges and both sides, going in the direction of the grain. And Samuel then sanded off each of the corners to make a flat.
We drilled a hole into each corner of the blocks. Going in a few millemetres to prevent the wood from splitting.
(Tip: After this stage, it is a good idea to seal the wood. Either with lacquer, or oil and wax to protect the wood from water damage.)
Starting at the bottom of the chain, screwed a screw at each corner, connecting the chain to the plant holder.
It was then time to test it again with the plant pot.
It worked! So we continued joining the rest of the plant holders at equal distances going up the chain, finishing with the top support. We then joined the rest of the chain together at the top with a larger chain link. (Or you could also use a key ring to do this.)
And there you have it – a vertical hanging planter for succulents!
Feel free to share this tutorial. And if you do decide to make a hanging planter yourself, I’d love to see some pictures 🙂
Urban Jungle Bloggers is a monthly series initiated by two bloggers: Igor of Happy Interior Blog and Judith of JOELIX.com. Every month bloggers from around the world join up and share ideas to create an urban jungle through styling ideas, DIYs, green tips and tricks. For even more inspiration visit the Urban Jungle Bloggers website.
What a fab idea to create a vertical garden! Fantastic DIY idea Sarah, thanks for sharing this with our green community!
And I must thank you and Urban Jungle Bloggers for giving me the inspiration. Now I have a lovely new hanging planter too 🙂
WOW! What a fantastic vertical hanger and so professionally done. They look great and once they grow will look incredible!!!! Well done you:-)
Thank you 🙂 They are growing really nicely – I think it might soon be time to replant them. Then, a good excuse to get a few more little ones for the vertical planter …
This is soooo neat. I love it. Thanks for sharing that DIY. I see using that sometime in the near future.
My pleasure. Look forward to seeing your pictures when you do.
What a lovely idea!!
Brilliant tutorial and really cute succulents….
Thank you – so pleased you enjoyed it!
Cool idea! I love it, really!
Thanks 🙂
Love love looooooove this vertical planter idea Sarah! It’s such a clever idea and so practical for watering your succulents too. I hope one day your donkey tail will look like the giant one in the picture, it’s so pretty. Thank you for sharing the step by step guide too. The result is stunning and how wonderful that it’s a creation with 4 hands <3 Thank you so much for sharing this with us today!
Thank you so much for your lovely comments, Judith. It will be amazing if I can get my donkey tail to look like that one day! But in the meantime I’ve discovered how much more of a focal point the succulents can look in a vertical planter like this. So it’s been a great learning experience for me too – as well as being a fun project to make 🙂
Such an awesome hanging with medieval twist! And just a great tutorial!
Thanks 🙂 Glad you liked the tutorial.
Wow, this is not only a UJB post but also a total DIY post 🙂 Lots of work! I really like your hanging plant construction. It definitely makes your 5 plants as one big statement.
Thanks so much. I figured that since we were putting it together anyway, it would be useful to turn it into a little tutorial so that others could try it as well.