Living Walls and Vertical Gardens
true art.
Living Wall in Getafe, Madrid, Spain
May 9th
Getafe is a city in the southern zone of the metropolis of Madrid, and is one of the most populated and industrialized cities in the municipality. These pictures were taken two months after planting. This living wall is on all four sides of a ventilation structure over a supermarket. Local residents had complained about the look of supermarket’s roof and they chose a living wall as the best solution to improve the roof’s aesthetics. While there’s a mini courtyard on the supermarket’s roof, the living wall is not accessible to the public.
Living Wall
Living Wall
Moss on the living wall
The challenge was building a vertical garden on all four sides of the vent. Each side had different lighting and required different plants. From Urbanarbolismo – Spanish
Aquaponic Vertical Garden from Inka Biospheric Systems
May 5th
Inka biospheric systems
Inka Biospheric Systems creates 3 different vertical gardening products. One, the Inka Stretch, is a fabric that can stretch across fences in urban environments. You can grow decorative plants, grass, herbs, fruits and most vegetables – pretty much anything except root vegetables in that system. Another is similar to ELT’s living wall panels – a hard plastic planter that be hung on a wall.
Inka Sun Curve
Perhaps the most interesting, however, is the completely closed-loop urban food growing system – the Inka Sun Curve. The fish in the tank need oxygenated, clean water. The water from the tank is pumped up through the system and the roots of the plants act as a biofilter to help clean the water. As it drips through the system and back into the tank, it puts more oxygen into the water for the fish.
With aquaponics, the fish poop acts like fertilizer for the plants so the plants naturally get the nutrients they need. While fish naturally produce ammonia which isn’t something plants can use, by putting certain microorganisms into the grow media, the ammonia is turned into nutrients the plants love.
Aquaponics
Aquaponics
To get the water pumping, power is needed. The Sun Curve uses both solar and wind to collect power to be stored in a battery bank so they consistently have enough to regularly keep the water pumping through the system. This model was originally designed to support remote clinics, schools, and refugee camps.
Like other hydroponic solutions, this method of gardening can use only 10% of the water used by traditional farms as all the extra water runoff is returned to the fish tank. Nothing runs off into the ground. You can read more at Inside Urban Green – a great resource for efficient gardening.
