Living walls have been around since perhaps the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Also known as green walls, vertical gardens, plant walls and vegetated walls, the modern version has been around for about 20 years. Botanical artist Patrick Blanc’s exceptional work in primarily France and Spain has brought this new planting surface out of somewhat obscurity into the mainstream and it is gaining popularity quickly.
The most simple living wall is a plant like ivy growing up the side of a building. The next step up is an engineered trellis system where plants are rooted in the ground, climbing up a structure separate from the building. This system allows for more variety and options. The most complex living walls systems all include four elements: growing media, structural support, integrated irrigation and a drainage system.
Living walls can exist inside with proper lighting, or outside in almost any climate. They can be planted randomly or have intricate patterns. Living walls or green walls can be self-sustaining with a recirculating irrigation system, hard piped with drip irrigation and a drain, or watered by hand.
Living walls produce tremendous benefits including:
- Aesthetic beauty
- Overall well being and happiness
- Natural air filtration through bio-filtration walls
- Removal of harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
- Conserving energy by shading and insulating the building envelope
- Creating biodiversity conservation opportunities
- Absorbing and filtering storm water and greywater
- Filtering air particulates
- Sound absorption
- Thermal regulation
- Reduced occupant stress
- In hospital settings, patients recover more quickly, use less pain medication and complain less
- Interior plants clean the air in your office or home
- Interior plants add humidity to the air when you have your central heating on in the winter
While many would disagree, nearly anyone can design, specify and install a living wall and have it look good on day one. The critical question for you to ask is this: How will it look in a year? Three years? Five years?
Over the past five years, GreenScaped Buildings has conducted long term trials of 20 different living wall systems, both inside and out. As a result, we can confidently recommend the best system for your application and individual needs. Our experts have firsthand knowledge which plants work best in each setting, how to correctly irrigate them, how much light they need and how to adapt to any setting or exposure.
With a mix of clients ranging from the private home or business owner to architects, landscape architects, interior designers, developers and general contractors, our consulting services can help determine the feasibility of your project and whether our products and services are right for you.
Our consulting team includes experienced architects, landscape architects, and horticulturalists so you receive the in-depth support you need for an informed decision.
No matter the size from a small interior living wall display to a huge exterior wall, the experts at GreenScaped Buildings will carefully address all installation issues to ensure your living wall project is structurally sound, safe, and secure.
We integrate your irrigation system to prevent any seepage issues that could cause mold or instability, while keeping your living wall watered and healthy.
GreenScaped Building’s professional installers take care to cause minimum disruption to your home or business, while never taking any shortcuts to quality or safety. In many cases, small projects can be installed in one day; larger projects in less than a week.
NOTE: Be aware that our lead time for some systems is up to four months to allow the plants to fully grow into the system before we hang it on your wall. This ensures the long term health of the plants and integrity of the living wall we create for you.
All landscapes, whether on the ground, on a roof top, or on a wall require maintenance. It is a mistake to believe that a living wall is any different. No matter how well designed, specified or built, maintenance is the key to a long lasting, successful living wall.
Choosing a carefully specified system that fits your unique needs, properly selected plants and an even, efficient irrigation distribution, living walls can be virtually self-sustaining. Similar to home and garden plants and interiorscapes, a living wall that is thriving requires ongoing pruning to trim dead leaves and other plant materials. It must be regularly fertilized, and occasionally replacement plants should be added as needed.
After the initial installation of a living wall, ongoing maintenance is not only a critical element for success, but preserves your investment. Maintenance is often required for a system warranty.
During the initial period, plants are establishing themselves and filling in the wall for complete coverage. The potential for a weed infestation is greatest during the establishment period but can be kept in control easily with regular inspections.
Good Earth Plant Company, the sister to GreenScaped Buildings, handles all of our maintenance and care for living walls. We will schedule weekly, bimonthly, monthly or quarterly maintenance and conduct checkups to ensure your living wall is always looking its best. This permits us to catch any potential maintenance issues at their earliest stages when they are easiest to address. We will monitor and adjust irrigation, prune and weed the wall as it grows, and ensure the wall’s growth is progressing as expected.
Protecting your investment and maintaining its structural and artistic integrity is our main concern. Customized programs are available.
GreenScaped Buildings experience with green roofs and living walls is now being applied to the next natural step, edible walls.
The idea of vertical farming and “victory farms” are not new, but with more densely-built urban areas and an eye on lessening environmental impacts, advocates of urban farming have embraced edible walls as a way to lower food costs, increase nutritional quality, grow organically, demonstrate food security, educate children on food origins, grow locally and cut fuel consumption and carbon emissions by using fewer delivery trucks.
Urban farming techniques are being studied and improved, and we are on the cutting edge of this new and exciting application to our living wall program. Although most edible walls are grown outdoors due to the high lighting requirements of herbs, fruits and vegetables, we have pioneered the use of LED grow lights for indoor farms.
While not all fruits, vegetables, and herbs can be grown on a wall (corn being a good example), many choices are ideal candidates. With practice and technological advancements plus the experience of the experts at Good Earth Plants, the possibilities are endless.
An edible wall can bring an entire farm to found space in the middle of an urban environment. Cutting edge restaurants such as Mario Batali’s Pizzeria Mozza locations, Seasons 52, and Terra American Bistro have embraced edible walls, proving their commitment to sustainability and crowd-pleasing fresh menus.
For families, an edible wall can be a great way to incorporate fresh produce into your meals, and teach your kids about gardening and the importance of healthy eating.
In places where a living wall may not be feasible, a Tower Garden® could be your perfect alternative. A Tower Garden is a state-of-the-art vertical aeroponic growing system. It’s perfect for any sunny place with a little bit of space: rooftops, patios, balconies, terraces.
Using aeroponics, the process of growing plants without the use of soil, the Tower Garden can grow almost any vegetable, herb, or flower and even many fruits.
The Tower Garden has a 20-gallon reservoir or storage tank at its base. This reservoir stores water with a nutrient solution (Tower Tonic®). Inside the reservoir is a small, low wattage submersible pump. The pump pushes the nutrient solution up through a small central hose, all the way to the top of your Tower Garden.
From there, the nutrient solution drips through the central “tower” of the Tower Garden using a special device that evenly cascades the nutrient solution over the plant roots that are exposed there. On the journey down the tower, the nutrient solution feeds the plants’ roots and becomes highly oxygenated as gravity tumbles it back down to the reservoir.
This process is continually repeated, providing fresh oxygen, water, and nutrients to the roots of the plants.
Contact us at Good Earth Plant Company and discover a easy, healthy way to grow your own fresh produce at home.