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.

kokedama asparagus

Arley Hall, Northwich, Cheshire in Northern England

Pleaching isn’t hard, but it does require training the plants early. There aren’t many North American trees that pleach well so if you’re looking to do it, you’d likely want to check with an arborist to ensure your work pays off.

Pleached apple trees

Trees that have pliable branches are the best to use and include apple, linden and hawthorn trees. The picture above is of a bunch of apple trees pleached to form a pathway.

Pleaching trees and hedges

To make the hedge above, the specimens should be planted 4-5 feet apart . The lower part of the trunk shouldn’t have any branches on it. You’ll tie jute twine between the trees to be a guide for the branches to grow together. After the plants grow and thicken, you can get rid of the twine and you’ll have a living wall.

Espalier services shows a conservatory at Longwood Gardens which uses the espalier technique to grow the plant along a wire fence to make the rooms of the large building more intimate. Espalier is the art of make plants into 2D objects instead of 3D. You can also make this wall out of certain types of fruit trees which has the benefit of allowing you to pick fruit right off the wall.

Indoor espalier fence

Here are three apple trees at Longwood Gardens again made into u-shaped espaliers. It saves space as they’re grown flat against the wall and allows you to pick the fruit easily. Below shows espaliers on a larger scale. The first shows the setup began its first tier at 4 ft high to create the living fence. The second is two years later.

Espalier rows living fence

Espalier rows

Here’s a few more espaliers from Gus&otherthings showing them used as a living fence and directly against a wall as a vertical garden.

Espalier living walls

Espalier green walls

Espalier living fence

Pooktre chair

I just discovered this recent form of eco art. It’s not exactly a living wall, but it’s definitely unique. Pooktre is the art of gradually shaping trees to serve as sculptures or even furniture over long periods of time.

Becky and Peter from Australia (pooktre.com) have grown furniture, tree people and even jewelry directly out of trees. Becky said a necklace can be grown from a seedling in about a year, but some of the larger eco sculptures have taken 8-10 years to create. They don’t actually fertilize or even water unless it’s particularly dry – the just let nature run it’s course while guiding the trees into the shapes they want. The tree species that they used the most are wild plum (Prunus myrobalan) and Black Cheery (Prunus Serotina).

Some of the trees they leave alive in the ground while others are harvested to make very unique furniture and other eye-catching items. Their work is popular as well. In the 2005 world expo, 8 of their pieces went to Japan to be shown.

From an interview Becky had:

Most people seem to think tree shaping takes too long. That’s not how it should be viewed, rather think of it like this: the time you spend shaping a tree is captured by the tree, then amplified. Twenty, thirty, fifty or maybe a few hundred years from now people will be able it see a tree shaping that you did today. Whether or not you chose to shape a tree, the time passes.

Here’s an example of their work from creating a coffee table and mirror to be harvested as furniture. The trees were carefully sculpted as they grew over 5-8 years. The mirror used some of the plant roots to act as a stand.

Coffee Table

Coffee Table

Pooktre

Pooktre Mirror

Gradual Tree Shaping Completed

Here’s Becky and the necklace she made out of a sapling. A Topaz was grafted into the the necklace as a pendant. It took a year to grow and another six months to dry out enough to take the bark off. Once that was done, she oiled it and now you see the finished product.

Jewelry

They’ve also crafted some interesting garden figures.. who are.. in a sense.. alive. It’d spice Halloween up for sure.

Garden Figures

Pooktre Garden Figures

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Garden Figures

Chris from Grown Up Furniture grows stools from trees.. and only stools. Chris’ goal is to get as many people as possible growing furniture (which really is the ultimate version of sustainable production). He calls it ‘grownup’ furniture as it’s the result of mature thinking. The stool was featured in 2009 in the ‘Salon Habitat Jardin’ held in one of the prestigious department stores in Lausanne.

Grown Up Furniture Stool

Grown Up Furniture Stool

Plants have the ability to be joined together through grafting and arborsculpture relies heavily on this. Woody plants are also able (with some persuasion) to retain a shape they have been forced to assume when they grown new layers of wood over the original soft bark. The difference between arborsculpture and Pooktre is arborsculpture is quickly forming trees into shapes while Pooktre involves growing them into shapes gradually.

(Update: Richard Reams from www.arborsmith.com informed me via email that he coined the term arborsculpture before Pooktre and that it involves growing plants into objects using all methods – both slow and fast. I had previously been informed by Becky from www.pooktre.com that pooktre is the art of gradually growing trees into objects and is not the same as arborsculpture. Both creators are very interested in having the work defined correctly and have differing opinions. I’d recommend visiting both sites and emailing the authors if you want further clarification.)

Below is a  willow chair that was made with arborsculpture.

Willow Chair

Here’s a tree house/hut made from Ficus in the Bio Park on Okinawa island:

Ficus tree house - arborsmith.com

Tree Trunk Topiaries from Belgium create trees with ornamental trunks. Before they sell the plants, they’ve already spend years in their nursery as the nurture them from cuttings to the final product. They create the shape of the tree during the early growth stages. Even in the same species, their experts pay attention to the location of the branches to ensure each plant looks its best. These trees you could definitely see being used by landscape designers and architects. I’m a fan of the helix and the corkscrew ones.

Corkscrew tree shaping

Tree trunk spiral design

Tree trunk helix

Totem Arborsculpture

Topiary pillars

A reader from Russia, Vadim, emailed me about some of the amazing topiary work he’s done there. Some of the work includes huge topiary pillars that surround a patio outdoors as well as some very interesting topiary designs of animals such as deers and bears. Usually I don’t post topiaries on here unless it’s to do with a design of a living wall, but these topiaries are amazing and all hand made by Vadim. I thought it’s something most of you would be interested in seeing.

From Vadim himself:

I studied landscape design.
Then dabbled in Topiary haircut.
From this came the creation of sculptures.
Unlike other I do sculptures for the overgrowth with a detailed drawing of the animal’s head.
This allows you to get the overgrowth of a spectacular figure in the garden.

Here’s a link to his site (it’s in Russian but has pictures). If you’re interested in his work and want to contact him his email is kvnru at mail dot ru

Topiary pillars

Garden Bear Sculpture

Garden Bear Art

Large topiary deer

Garden deer

Garden topiary