Living Walls and Vertical Gardens « true art.

Eco Walls
Eco Walls, based in Bordentown, NJ, is expanding the green footprint in urban environments. Where new construction in urban environments often means losing greenspace, Eco Walls reverses that trend using living walls. They grow their plants right in their greenhouse in a proprietary blend of soilless medium design to wick and lock in moisture while providing optimum levels of oxygen, and beneficial microbes ...

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Constructing a Vertical Garden Patrick Blanc Style

Apr 8th

San Diego landscape designers Amelia B. Lima and Ricardo Marinho created this Patrick Blanc style vertical garden.

The location was a long, skinny yard – 40 ft by 17 ft wide. The dining room and kitchen looked right onto a block wall surrounding the property and Amelia’s goal was to create a living wall to bring a more natural look to the backyard. The result was a 260 square foot vertical garden using epiphytes and lithophytes (plants that usually grow without much soil, like on rocks)

Galvanized steel makes the frame. They’re set in place with concrete footings. Next, marine plywood and corrugated plastic are attached to the frame. Amelia then stapled on two layers of synthetic felt to the plastic and then cut slits in the first layer. The plants nestle between the layers of felt and which helps to evenly distribute the water across the wall from the drip irrigation system at the top.

Frame

PVC irrigation system at the top

Greenwall being planted

A water channel underneath the gravel pumps the water to the wall and collects the extra water to be used again later. Via Lushe

Floating Gardens

Apr 6th

Posted by Gavin in Vertical gardens

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Floating Garden

This unique form of gardening is based off of kokedma. Kokedma is the art of growing plants from moss balls – Koke (Moss) Dama (Ball) – “the poor man’s bonsai”. Robin from Urban Gardens Web (a great site) got in touch with Fedor who put his unique twist on typical kokedma by hanging the plants from ceilings with string. Fedor will hang the plants at eye level and will continually adjust the string as the plant grows as its center of gravity changes.

Indoor floating garden

Fedor keeps the plants watered by moss that goes right to the center of the ball or by a steady dripping system that keeps the root ball moist. They generally are watered every three days. Another possible way to water is the ‘Kokedma way’ where you just put the whole ball into a bucket of water for 2-3 minutes. Then just gently squeeze the ball and you’re all set. You can also just mist the moss to ensure it stays green.

Because of the small size of the ball the plants will typically remain small with the inside of the ball allowing for growth and development of the plant’s root system.

Floating garden

Here’s a few regular kokedma:

Kokedma

This Asparagus below is “Asparagus Plumosus,” also commonly called “Asparagus Fern” and “Lace Fern,” although it is not fern. It is Liliaceae and related to Asparagus that we eat. The young stems look like a skinny version of the vegetable asparagus.