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© Patrick Blanc
© Patrick Blanc
Photo courtesy of ELT EasyGreen
Photo courtesy of ELT EasyGreen
Photo courtesy of GSky Plant Systems
Photo courtesy of GSky Plant Systems
Photo courtesy of Suthi Picotte
Photo courtesy of Joshua White
Photo courtesy of Amelia B. Lima & Associates
Photo courtesy of Amelia B. Lima & Associates
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Gardens get vertical
By Kristina Shevory of SwitchYard Media
It can be hard to bring the outdoors inside or turn a backyard into a lush Eden if you have little space. Or if the space you have is awkward.
Enter living walls. French botanist Patrick Blanc came up with the idea for a vertical garden in the late 1980s as a way for cities to go "green" using existing space. Roads, buildings and sidewalks take up most of a city’s horizontal space, but most vertical space is unused.
Blanc and others have run gardens up the sides of parking garages, museums, malls and schools — not to mention homes.
Homeowners have taken to vertical gardens as a way to garden in a small space and use otherwise-bare walls; some even consider their plantings living art. These gardens also have a function: When installed on exterior walls, they sometimes can reduce the heat that a building absorbs.
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Gardens get vertical
Going up …
Blanc’s gardens defy most gardening truisms. His gardens grow vertically and without dirt. Plants are rooted in a layer of felt that is stapled to a waterproof PVC plastic sheet. The felt and the PVC sheets are attached to a metal frame that hangs on a wall or stands on its own.
In this garden in Majorca, Spain, a drip-irrigation system atop the frame waters plants automatically. Water is supplemented with fertilizer, drips down the wall and collects at the bottom of the vertical garden. A pump recirculates water to the top of the frame.
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Gardens get vertical
Modular gardening
For homeowners seeking vertical gardens of any size, kits and modular systems are available that make installation simple.
Canadian company ELT EasyGreen, for example, installs plants in angled plastic trays that are mounted directly on a wall or in a frame. Instead of felt, plants are rooted in dirt or another growth medium.
Each panel is 12 inches by 12 inches and can be used on its own or with a few other panels, as in this outdoor kitchen.
ELT's do-it-yourself kit costs $69.
- Video: Vertical gardens around the world
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Gardens get vertical
Choosing the right plants
Plant selection depends on your location, but people have used bromeliads, hoyas, ferns and dwarf spider plants. Succulents can be a good choice for living walls because they require little maintenance and can create a textured design, as in this wall.
Maintenance includes watering (supplemented with fertilizer) and trimming the plants. Watering frequency depends on the garden's size, sun exposure, location and design. Large exterior gardens will need more water than small ones inside.
Like many houseplants, living walls shed leaves if the plants start to die.
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Gardens get vertical
Meditation in green
For this house in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., GSky Plant Systems designed and installed a lush tropical wall with embedded Buddhist and Hindu statues for a homeowner who wanted a piece of tropical Asia in her home.
The 272-square-foot wall includes philodendrons, ferns, orchids and dwarf spider plants, among others.
GSky and other high-end vertical-garden-makers offer a maintenance package for busy homeowners.
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Gardens get vertical
Luxury garden
Vertical gardens can take nearly any shape, and GSky’s green walls in this Indian Creek, Fla., home are a great example.
The courtyard's green walls include more than 17,000 tropical plants. The 1,475-square-foot living garden is designed to keep walkways clear of overgrown vegetation and maintain spacious views inside and out.
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Gardens get vertical
Do it yourself
For homeowners who want to move their gardens around, Woolly Pockets may be the best solution. Made of breathable felt with a moisture barrier, each pocket is attached to a wall with screws and fasteners. You fill it with soil and plants. Each pocket costs $36 to $41.
Like other modular systems, each Woolly Pocket can be used individually or with others to create a wall of plants, such as this one in the kitchen of a Los Angeles home. It cost $156.
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Gardens get vertical
Poolside pocket garden
Plants that would do well in a container usually do well in a Woolly Pocket, such as this one near the pool of another Los Angeles home. But wannabe gardeners should check with local nurseries to select the best plants for their climate and the sun exposure in their location.
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Gardens get vertical
Lush entrance
Tired of staring at a white wall outside her kitchen and dining room, Amelia B. Lima, a San Diego landscape designer, decided she wanted more.
Using Blanc's living walls as inspiration, she transformed a 40-foot wall into one full of plants. For her wall, she chose plants like bromeliads, elephant ears and ferns that work well in Southern California.
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Gardens get vertical
The green wall
Lima's wall required a little construction work and some help from friends. First, Lima installed a long metal frame along her wall and bolted marine plywood and plastic sheeting onto the frame to support the plants and keep water off the wall.
Two layers of felt were stapled to the plastic, and holes were cut into the felt for the plants. An automatic drip-irrigation system provides water.
The cost was about $17,000.
CORRECTION: Gardens get vertical
June 30, 2011: The living wall in Amelia B. Lima’s home cost about $17,000. The article originally included an incorrect cost figure.
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