Forever a project in my mind, my vertical garden was finally created last weekend. A friendly and helpful man at Flora Grubb talked us out of purchasing their $90 box planters and about repurposing shutters instead. So Josh and I went over to Urban Ore and - lo and behold - we found the perfect set of plantation shutters for $40.

With the help of my friend Nathaniel, we framed it out and boxed in the planter area using pine and 1/4" cement "hardie" board. I sanded and painted everything using my favorite patio shade, "Black Jack" by Benjamin Moore, and filled it all with The Dry Garden's succulent & cactus blend. The plants were purchased from The Cactus Jungle and Alex Rigg in Berkeley (Alex sells the most amazing varieties of succulents and cactii out of her house on Delaware street between Sacramento and California).

PS- if you're interested in some of the plant varieties shown, I'm cataloguing them on Pinterest.

Update: all of the plants are still alive, some getting a little "leggy" and losing a bit of their red color, but otherwise still looking like they do in these pics.