How to transform your courtyard into a lush, green oasis
Sure, you love the busy city life. Just not all the time. Sometimes you crave silence, nature, and peace... right in your own courtyard or small garden. How do you transform that space into a green oasis, a perfect place to unwind? We'll show you how with these three simple projects.
Create a vertical garden for your courtyard
There are professional structures for constructing vertical gardens, but these are usually designed for parking garages or large office buildings, and not your cozy courtyard. You can also find ready-made solutions, but you want to get hands-on. So, why not create something beautiful with a discarded pallet?
You can plant perennials, annuals, or even herbs and lettuce in your vertical garden. Just be sure to choose relatively small plants. Once you hang up your vertical garden and the plants start growing, you’ll need to water them regularly. A courtyard wall tends to be exposed to a lot of sun and wind, making the moisture evaporate quickly.
Build honeycomb wall shelves
The plants and flowers in your vertical garden wall will surely attract bees. This got us thinking about honeycombs. If you have another bare wall in your courtyard, consider adding some original honeycomb-shaped wall shelves. You can easily build these yourself. Thanks to their hexagonal shape, the shelves will be very sturdy and durable.
Store everything in a practical storage bench
You’ve transformed that empty courtyard into a peaceful oasis, filled with greenery, the gentle buzz of bees, and charming decorations showcased on your beautiful wall shelves. The only thing that's missing now is a comfortable bench to relax on, with enough space to store your gardening tools. How about building a lidded storage bench, so you can sit comfortably and keep your tools tucked away neatly?
Which tools will you need?
You can sand by hand, but it’s easier and faster with a power sander, especially a cordless palm sander. Thanks to its triangular base plate, it easily reaches corners and tight spots. Plus, working cordless gives you complete freedom of movement.
To make things even easier, we’ll use a paint sprayer for staining. For the boards and pallets, a sprayer with a small reservoir is enough. You can choose between an airless sprayer or an HVLP (High Volume, Low Pressure) system, which uses compressed air for spraying. HVLP sprayers are ideal for smaller projects like these.
To line the inside of the planters, bring out your pneumatic nailer/stapler. It lets you drive nails or staples quickly, powerfully, and precisely into thick materials. You’ll also need your cordless impact drill/driver, preferably one with an 18 V battery or higher.
To make the honeycomb wall shelves, you’ll need a mitre saw to cut several boards with bevelled angles. Since the saw blade only moves downwards, it’s very stable and precise. It's best to use a mitre saw that can tilt both ways, so you don’t have to flip your workpiece when cutting angles in the opposite direction, which comes in handy for this particular project.
Ready, steady, DIY!
Just picture yourself surrounded by your personal green oasis. Bring the mirage to life with our step-by-step plan for a vertical garden, honeycomb shelves, and a neat storage bench.