Layering Plants for Small Space Gardening

Layering plants is an effective way to maximize the yield from a small space garden. By pairing different heights and sizes of plants, or planting greens underneath taller plants, gardeners can take advantage of shade and use the limited space efficiently. Microclimates can also be created with shade and plant placement to help certain vegetables survive the warmer months. This can help prolong the growing season and get more out of the hotter months of the year.

Small Space Gardening

Plant Layering

Kaylee with Rooted Revival is a Garden Guru when it comes to all things home gardening and making sure it's done right. This is all about small space gardening and if you have a small garden, or even if you do have the space, you still want to make the most of it.


The first thing we're going to talk about is actually layering, which is exactly what we're doing using the Planted Wall and its hex pots. Layering is the idea of thinking about your garden in different layers, thinking about different heights and levels of plants.


If you have 3 plants that all grow to the same height and the same size, you're not going to be able to fit as much in as if you had 3 plants that grow to different heights and different sizes. So if you had a small plant, a medium plant, and a big plant, that can work together quite well.


And that's basically what we did when we designed these seasonal grow kits. For example, there are onions and our green onions and plants like that which are super skinny and can grow in little spaces. Then we have a bigger plant, like a tomato and then we have some smaller ones like certain herbs. So it works really well and it absolutely helps you maximize your space when you group things together in that way!


So you should think about how to layer your plants when you're setting up your Planted Wall. For example, on our test walls, we've got chives, which have a different texture and can grow skinny but tall. Lettuce takes up less space and sits tight. And then the strawberry plant is what we'd call a trailing plant, like plants that droop or hang down. So those 3 plants can add a lot of different dimensions to our test Planted Wall. It makes it great!

Full Planted Wall Ready for Harvest

Our pollinator pot brings in a variety of pollinator, edible floral and herbal plants to bring your backyard or deck to life!