For privacy, quiet and insulation, consider a living wall. You’ve landscaped, gardened, and perhaps even planted your roof. Now consider another opportunity for plantscapes: Vertical planting on walls. Growing “green walls” or “living walls” provides small-footprint gardens as well as insulating and beautifying greenery that can disguise the most uninspiring walls and serve as a delightful alternative to conventional fencing.

They can provide privacy, sound barriers, habitat, moisture, and shade in addition to gardens that can provide flowers, fruits and vegetables. They can even naturally filter or evaporate rooftop runoff and wastewater, helping to take a load off stormwater and wastewater systems and protecting rivers and streams. Living walls differ from trellises, and ivy- and climbing plant-covered walls in that they feature growing medium that allows plants to take root in the wall, not just at the base of it.

There are a variety of ways to grow vertically, such as garden walls, green walls, green eco-walls, wall planters, and hydroponics. Garden walls and green walls are perhaps the easiest and most versatile.