Sure, home is where the heart is. But when spring arrives, I'd rather be outdoors. After hours amid blossoming flowers and leafy trees, my small apartment always feels like a reminder of winter's barren days.

But thanks to "living wall" kits, helping a home out of hibernation has become easy. One option: California company Woolly Pocket, which sells modular gardening containers crafted from felt made entirely from recycled plastic bottles. While the breathable material keeps soil oxygen-rich, a moisture barrier, made of 60 percent recycled plastic, prevents unwanted runoff. The Wally line of Woolly Pockets is intended as an indoor vertical garden, and includes the Wally One ($39, a 15-by-40 inch unit), Wally Three ($125, three 15-by-22-inch units wide) and Wally Five ($188, five 15-by-22-inch units). To get your whole wall growing, you can stack several Wally Three or Wally Five pockets on top of one another, and attach them by overlapping their grommets. They're available at Flora Grubb Gardens (1634 Jerrold Ave., S.F.; (415) 648-2670) and woollypocket.com.

Among other possibilities are the living wall kits from ELT Easy Green. A single unit retails for $39, and contains 10 planting cells in its 1-square-foot frame. A mounting strip and collection and drip tanks are included, as are skirting and coconut coir, the fibrous remains of the coconut shell, which can be used for filling. A double unit is also available for $59 (eltlivingwalls.com).

After all, there's no reason your home can't have a spring awakening, too.

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This article appeared on page M - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle