The Green Wall Learning More about Vertical Gardening
How many times have you gone into a neighbor’s garden and admired one of his walls, completely or even partially covered with lots and lots of greenery? Or you may have gone to a place to see some old buildings and their harsh, bleak and stony exterior may have been softened with lots of ivy.
This book is going to tell you all about vertical gardening, where you are going to be using a wall as a support. A green wall is always going to need a way in which you can water the plants so that you have living green walls. These vertical gardens are going to be the focus of everybody’s envy. The next time they come visiting your home, just point them out to that green growth covering the sides of your stone or brick pride and joy.
So what is the difference between a green wall and a green façade? A green façade is going to be many plants planted at the base of the wall, and covering the wall up with the help of a trellis or any other sort of support, like ropes. The plants are going to be rooted in this soil, which may be on the ground, or maybe in containers.
Metal and wire supports, especially for climbing plants can provide creepers with a firm hold.
But a complete green wall is going to have a number of necessary growing mediums like soil, which are placed on the wall’s face. So you can have these containers either hanging at intervals off the green wall, or have your plants growing from niches and cracks in the wall, – this is how plants grow naturally in the wilderness, especially when they are looking for any sort of space from which to grow, especially on stone walls.
You can have a green wall inside your house or outside it, depending on the weather. You can either attach it to a solid wall, or you can have it, freestanding all alone on its own.
Hanging Containers
Someone has done a really great job of making squares of different plants, planted in different containers, on this particular green wall.
Anybody who has not tried out the option of using hanging containers in which to grow plants is missing out on a chance of so much greenery, all over the place. Apart from soft drink bottles, yogurt containers, and any sort of attractive boxes, in which you can plant one or two plants are even some seedlings, you can also use empty tire cubes and I also saw a friend of mine hanging up some gutters which she used on the rooftop.
She just latched a number of these gutters on the side of the walls and the buildings. Some gutters she just attached together with the help of chains and other durable hanging materials and allowed to hang down over the sides of the wall. But before that she drilled a number of holes at the bottom of the gutters so that there was plenty of drainage, then added a layer of gravel so that the water could soak through the topmost gutter, by seeping through the holes, if the container was waterlogged, and she had herbs, lettuces, and other vegetables growing side by side on her walls.
There is another friend of mine who cannot go out for her morning walk without bringing back a bag full of aluminum and other metal cans, soft drink bottles, and any containers found in the garbage pails of the neighbors. Once when I asked her if she did not feel conscious bent deep inside the deep garbage pails, rootling for what she considered to be treasures, she said no, her friendly neighborhood friends knew that she would be coming along and kept the bottles and containers outside the garbage pails. It was only after she had persuaded them to come and see her green walls. Those neighbors were not gardeners but they enjoyed the lettuce and kale growing on those walls, in the containers given by them so everybody was happy!
Water Circulation in Green Walls
Irrigation tanks are normally placed next to the walls, so that it is easier for water to be circulated throughout the plants either through drip irrigation and recirculation. But you have to be careful about overwatering and under watering your plants, especially when you are doing the watering by hand. Also, if you have lots and lots of plants, and you are doing hand watering, this is going to consume a large amount of your day, every day, especially when you are watering from the top. You are going to need to water for enough time so that it can be absorbed in every planter and possibly drip down into the other planter down below, if you have the planters planted in series.
In a drip irrigation system, you are going to pump the water from the reservoir, circulating from down to up until the reservoir empties out. Then fill the reservoir up again. In a direct irrigation system, you are not going to use a reservoir and a pump. Here your plants are going to be watered from external sources directly. When you have a larger green wall, you can use direct irrigation. A smaller wall is going to use recirculating irrigation systems.
Final Tips for Green Wall Planting
This particular plant is a great plant for climbing up trees, walls, and hedges.
Remember that there are a number of factors which you have to take into account when you are making a wall full of green plants. A green wall is going to be heavy so you have to make sure that your outer wall is strong and sturdy enough to bear the heavy load of plants hanging from the wall. However, if the living wall is made with the plants planted under the wall and growing upwards like Ivy and Grapevine and cucumbers, these plants can grow well on a stone wall or a brick wall.
Make sure that your architect or contractor tells you how much weight the wall can bear, especially when you intend to hang lots of plants from your vertical or living garden.
The wall that you choose should have access to air, water, and plenty of light, especially natural light. If you are making the green wall indoors, you will need to install some more artificial indoor lighting. Gardening centers and local nurseries in your area are going to give you better advise on the plants that you are going to choose either seasonally, annually, or for a permanent green wall.
This book has given you some information on how vertical gardening can provide you with the best hobby while providing you with plenty of ways in which you can beautify your exterior with plants at the same time.
Use your own creativity in the matter of containers. If the wall is made up of just one plant, planted at the bottom of the wall with the wall being used just as a support, the watering is going to be done with a hosepipe, just like this bougainvillea wall, at least you are getting started.
This bougainvillea combination is not only good for covering your wall, but it is also a good natural fence.
So begin thinking of vertical gardening instead of horizontal gardening, use the area available to you and start on this interesting new hobby right now!
Live Long and Prosper!
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