DIY Flower Tower

Add a splash of colour with this tower of flowers! Vertical gardening gives you more space to plant and can add eye-catching interest.

Supplies needed:

Large pot

Smaller plastic pot that fits inside large one

Tomato cage

Plastic snow fencing

Plastic drain pipe

Duct tape

Black garden fabric

Tie wraps

Gardening soil

Fertilizer (I used hen manure)

Flower transplants (I used 24 for this one)

Scissors and snips

First place the small plastic pot upside down in the bottom of the large one. Then fill around with soil (I used some old soil in the pot because no plants will be in this part). Next duct tape the bottom of the drain pipe, cut a few slits in it all the way up, then stand it in the pot on top of the overturned small one. This will help add moisture to the tower of flowers as well as using up a little space in the middle so less weight. I must tell you though that when this thing is filled it's still mighty heavy! Make sure you build it where you want it !!!

Add more soil to almost fill the pot and secure the drain pipe in place with soil.

Most towers I've seen on the internet use wire fencing, but I like to use what I have around instead of buying more stuff. I took some plastic snow fencing and wrapped the tomato cage with it, overlapping a bit and securing with tie wraps. Then I stood the tower in the pot with the tomato cage's prongs straddling the small upturned pot.

I then measured out the black garden fabric to go about 1 1/2 times around the tower, overlapping to prevent soil from leaking out. And make sure there is enough fabric that can be tucked over the top of the fencing and secured as well. Again, in examples I've seen the fabric is placed on the inside of the tower. But I found that to be a hassle so I just wrapped the outside and poked holes through the fabric at the tomato cage rings to secure the fabric to the tower with tie wraps as you can see in the photo below. Use snips to cut off excess from the tie wraps.

Looking inside you can see that I covered the top of the drain pipe with a piece of fabric and held it in place with a clothespin so that it didn't fill with soil. Now start filling the tower and gently water the soil down 2 or 3 times while filling. Add fertilizer to the soil too

Once filled cut crosses in fabric (you may need to snip the plastic fencing sometimes too), make a hole in the soil with you fingers then slide the transplant in. I used mostly petunias, with some begonias because hubby wanted them, and sweet potato vine on top.

I had this bamboo stick supporting the tower because it is top heavy. Even with the drain pipe and small plastic pot giving some air space this baby is H E A V Y!

But then we removed the bamboo sticks after deciding to secure the tower to a garden post with heavy wire. Fill the top of the planter tucking in the excess fabric, secure with ties and add plants to the top.

I like the look of the fabric on the outside rather than having it inside with the fencing showing, but it won't matter anyways once these beauties fill out!

A few weeks later...

and mid July. Should I have used more transplants and planted closer together?