It’s worth saying right away that a vertical garden is truly a living wall. The garden perfectly generates oxygen in large quantities and looks great at the same time. You could even say that this is a more than affordable piece of fine art. But there is one significant subtlety. A vertical garden requires much more care than most indoor plants, but it also fills the room with much more vitality. As long as you take care of the garden, it lives and works for you. Today we have some tips on how to make the most popular vertical garden in town. Here's what you need to know before you start creating a vertical garden indoors or outdoors.
By the way, just recently we talked about how houses were built in Sydney with .
If you are going to create a composition larger than an ordinary poster, consider hiring a competent professional. For example, in Santa Barbara, designer Terra Basche of Terra Malia Designs turned an office wall into a huge living wall that maximized the designer's creativity. At the same time, the wall produces oxygen in its pure form.
Terra Basche from Terra Malia Designs shows off his work
1Choosing pots for planting. Most lawn and garden stores sell a variety of systems for planting plants on fences. Terra Basche uses a special agro-system with additives supplied to the soil and made of environmentally friendly fiberglass. “It’s very easy and quick to plant a plant in such pots, and also to remove it...” says Basche. “If one plant is suffering from, say, pests or disease, it can be easily removed and replaced.” At the same time, the design has a large margin of safety. With this kind of equipment, all you need to do is buy the plants themselves. A good option for independent people is the Woolly Pocket system, which is easy and quick to assemble, doesn’t break the bank and works great on any scale. It can be written even on doors, let alone empty spaces on the walls.
Selling plants at a specialized market
2We select plants. For your first living wall, choose a maximum of 15 cm plants that you like, but try to immediately imagine what effect you are going to achieve. Don't forget that different plants have different needs. Try to achieve the maximum combination. Plants from the succulent order do not require much water, but they always look very interesting. Sedum is an excellent choice. In principle, you can select plants with different water needs, but first you need to plant them in one test tray and make sure how much water they consume in order to choose the right type of soil or pebbles for planting. If you paint your bathroom wall with paint, it will be a disaster. But for a living wall, this is the most relish. The main thing is that there is enough light. And the wall will find moisture on its own in such conditions. One more tip. Plants that densely cover the space perfectly hide the shortcomings of planting systems.
Succulents are always a great choice for a vertical garden.
3Selecting a wall. Remember, you are hanging a living garden, not a piece of art. There will be hammer drills, dowels, screws, dirt, fertilizer. The picture below is a collection of succulents and herbs that are easy to care for but labor intensive to hang on the wall. Consider talking to a professional to ensure all wall measurements are appropriate for hanging your garden. Also, choose a location that is always easy to access. Make sure it's not too close to furniture or textiles, since you'll be watering and cleaning your planter, right?
A great example of a living wall in a bathroom with a window.
4Choosing light. Make sure your garden is near a window or other physical light source, otherwise the plants will be stunted and unable to grow. Sunlight is always better than artificial light, so try to take this into account when choosing the location of your living wall.
Demonstration of possible unpretentious plants in one installation
5We decide on the price. Convince yourself not to spend more than $200 per square meter of system. Common home devices should not cost more than $1,000. Serious professional devices can cost up to 10 thousand dollars or more, depending on the idea or design of the plantation. And even 200 dollars is no longer small money, and the pots still need to be filled. Take a closer look at vines or ivy, which will hide the shortcomings of cheap systems. For example, architect Rudolf Lesňák uses a hydroponic system with clay granule pots to eliminate the need for soil and make full use of modern gardening technology.
Budget street version of a living wall
6Choosing the appropriate watering. Although many systems are designed for residential walls, they can also be used outdoors. Don't forget to drill additional holes to drain water when it rains. If you decide to place your living wall outside, choose plants that are suitable for your city's climate. Also carry out long-term testing on the amount of water consumption by your seedlings. Some plants require daily watering, while others need only one watering per week. Avoid water stagnation in your system. Remove the drying plant immediately. The most reliable living wall does not require any pump or electricity, and the plants survive without water for several weeks. In the photo below we see a system assembled from hanging aluminum baskets. Rainwater is collected from the roof and fed into the vertical garden's irrigation system.
Flowers are the decoration of any celebration; it is not for nothing that they are given for all holidays and decorate any events. Such a floral pann O can be made from both fresh flowers and artificial ones . Live ones look more impressive, but the cost of such design will be much higher. A flower wall will be an excellent photo zone for a wedding, anniversary and other events; it can be used to decorate a studio for a photo shoot or a wall in the house (why not). And you can do this without involving any services, with your own hands. Registration e It will take a certain amount of time, but it will be worth it.
With a little effort, you can diversify the decor of your event by creating something like this:
So, to make such a panel, you will need:
On a thick piece of colored paper, draw a pattern, cut it out and fold it like an accordion, as shown in the picture below:
Make a cut at the base of each petal and overlap the petals, of which there should be 6 in total. Glue the lower three first, then the upper ones.
Make a core from paper of a different color. To do this, you need to cut out 2 circles of different sizes. Then we make cuts in a circle from the edge to the center, leaving the middle and using scissors we twist the edges.
Glue the core to the flower.
The next step is to cut out the flower petals and glue them to the bottom. The result should be a flower like this:
Other options for making walls from paper flowers can be viewed at the links below:
Decorating a wall with fresh flowers is a little more difficult than with paper ones, since fresh flowers are more delicate and require special care. You can’t make decorations much in advance of the event, because the flowers may wither. Roses, peonies, carnations, lilies, chrysanthemums are ideal, you can also take orchids, but this plant is very fancy and expensive. But, for example, the Dior company used them at its show:
You can decorate an event by fixing a flower panel in a frame, while saving a lot of money.
The idea of using walls to create a green corner at home is relatively new and very popular. But this is not only a tribute to fashion, but also benefits for humans, from the lungs to the ears. Let's take a closer look in this article about why vertical gardening is good in your apartment, and how to do it yourself.
So, in addition to the obvious space savings, let’s consider a few more important benefits that green walls in the interior provide.
It has been scientifically proven that foliage directly affects air quality. It’s not for nothing that tropical forests are figuratively called “the lungs of the planet.”
A wall with greenery will noticeably change the composition of the air in the room for the better. It works as a natural air filter. The vertical garden purifies pollutants and supplies pure oxygen.
Such a microclimate at home will improve your mood and add energy.
Anyone who has encountered vertical gardening will confirm that it looks impressive. We are simply not used to seeing blooming gardens in this position, so the wall catches the eye.
It's no surprise that even the most unassuming room can be easily revitalized by simply adding vertical landscaping. A green wall will make visitors feel friendly and will be an excellent soothing splash of color for the owners.
Surprisingly, plants help reduce energy consumption in the apartment. If there are enough plants, as is the case with vertical planting, they form an effective ecosystem and help maintain the correct temperature around them.
The process of evaporation of moisture from the leaves will cool the room in the heat, reducing the need to turn on the air conditioner. Likewise, the ecosystem helps maintain warmth during the cold season.
Plant structures on the wall reduce background noise from outside, which is especially important for city apartments in noisy neighborhoods busy with traffic.
Foliage absorbs and reflects sound waves in its path. Therefore, a room with vertical gardening will literally become a peaceful and quiet oasis, and not only because the company of green spaces in itself is peaceful and calming.
To create a massive structure covering the entire wall, it is better to invite a professional. But it is quite possible to cope with the installation of a small green vertical zone with your own hands.
Select the wall where you want to place your own vertical garden. Mark the space that the structure will occupy.
First, build a dense frame that can support your weight on the wall, combined with the weight of the plants. The most suitable material for this is durable plastic. See the photo below for examples.
Attach a sheet of plastic to the frame to prevent water from leaking onto the wall. Now you are ready to attach a layer of fabric to the frame that will serve as the foundation for your plants to live on. Use a material that absorbs moisture well and allows roots to grow through. Felt or felt is ideal.
Set up an irrigation system so that water can reach all parts of the green wall. This is usually a tube that carries water from the top of the wall throughout the structure. Since this is one of the most important aspects, you will most likely want to contact an expert in this field. At this stage you will also need to install the fertilizer system.
Another way to become the owner of your own green picture is to buy a ready-made phytomodule. This is the name given to industrially manufactured structures that provide automatic watering and drainage for a vertical garden.
They can accommodate both pots with soil and plants in special fillers.
The advantages of ready-made phytomodules include quick installation and undemanding flower care. The downside is the relatively high cost.
You can purchase such a ready-made design in chain stores for landscape design or via the Internet.
Decide what to plant in your green corner on the wall based on your personal tastes. The main thing to consider are several important points:
An interesting option is succulents in a phytomodule. This green wall looks neat and does not require maintenance.
If you are interested in the topic of arranging a green oasis in your apartment vertically, and not in the usual plane, watch several thematic videos.
They tell in more detail about the installation and arrangement of green walls in the apartment and on the street.
Before organizing a vertical garden in your apartment, decide on its location. And only based on it, select plants for interior landscaping. The fact is that in different parts of your home, lighting and air circulation conditions differ from each other. Also, when choosing, focus on the humidity level in the room.
The more carefully you approach the process of selecting plants, the easier it will be for you to care for your vertical garden and the more it will delight you with its lush and healthy appearance.
The main types of vertical gardening are based on hydroponics and using soil. In the first case, you will have to make a choice from the most unpretentious plants; in the second, the choice is a little wider, since your garden will receive all its nutrients from its natural, familiar environment.
Expanded clay and sphagnum moss are most often used as hydroponics: moss perfectly retains moisture, and expanded clay provides access to oxygen.
Vertical home gardens also differ in the way they are planted.
The most popular options:
If you are not eager to make a modular structure yourself, turn to the range of modern manufacturers: on sale you can find a lot of varieties of ready-made phytomodules for organizing vertical gardens.
Well, for those who plan to create a vertical garden in an apartment with their own hands from start to finish, the flight of imagination is unlimited; the essence of the method is to mount a set of modules vertically on a selected frame (these can be plastic cells, metal boxes, wall-mounted flowerpots, etc.) .d.) with plants planted in them.
Most often, felt is chosen to create a fabric with pockets, since this material is resistant to rotting. Form a felt sheet with pockets of the desired size, attach it to the selected frame base (after covering the back wall with film to protect the wall from moisture). Wash and trim the roots of the plants selected for vertical gardening, and, together with the previously prepared soil, wrap them in pieces of felt fabric, and then insert them into pockets.
To make this stylish and effective decorative element with your own hands, make a frame with a back wall (or you can take, for example, a large photo frame as a basis), cover the future panel with film to retain moisture, fill it with soil and secure the mesh on top: it is needed for soil retention, as well as for the formation of conditional cells where plants will be planted. Carefully plant the plants on your future panel, give them time to take root, and then place them on the wall.
Photo: Instagram terrafiori_karaganda
If you are not eager to constantly monitor the vertical garden and manually water and spray it, equip the created structure with an irrigation system.
You can purchase a ready-made one or make it yourself: to do this, you will need to build a water tank into the frame of the structure, purchase a mini-pump and insert droppers into a regular hose to regulate the water supply. This method is shown in more detail in the video:
If you are planning to place your vertical garden in a part of the apartment that is not the most illuminated, or if the plants you have chosen, complement your vertical gardening. By the way, they can be connected to a timer - and thus accurately regulate the incoming light in automatic mode.
Yes, yes, there are special people who can help you with measuring humidity and lighting parameters, selecting the necessary plants and actually organizing vertical gardening in the apartment. If you are not sure that you can successfully complete the task on your own, seek help from specialists. They will also advise you on how to care for the selected plants.
There are also entire companies specializing specifically in vertical gardening. If you plan to organize, for example, a large phyto-wall (or even more than one), it makes sense to contact just such a company. Also, such companies often provide after-sales service: specialists will look after your vertical garden, and if one or more plants die or become ill, they will be replaced under warranty.
If you don’t want to seriously bother with organizing a vertical garden and spend money on turning to professionals, consider the option of artificial phytowalls. They look, of course, a little less impressive than living ones, but they do not require watering or fertilizers - only regular cleaning from dust.
Finally, after decades of worshiping the insidious vinyl-polyethylene monster, humanity has chosen the path of returning to its own origins, and therefore to everything natural, created by nature itself. And this affected not only food and clothing, but also the world around people. So in interior design, such a technique as phytowall.
In general, a phytowall is an option for placing groups of indoor plants on a vertical surface. This method allows you to look at the possibilities of growing our favorite flowers in a new way and makes caring for them much easier. After all, this is exactly what we all want: for a houseplant to always be healthy, pleasing to the eye and not cause unnecessary trouble. In this regard, the classic arrangement of plants in pots on window sills is not always convenient or beautiful. And flowers are often not visible at all behind curtains and drapes. Moreover, when the windows are oriented to the north, where there is not enough sun in summer, and there is almost no sun at all in winter, how can you cherish your pets?
It is for this reason that phytowalls have become so popular.
In general, placing a phytowall in a house or apartment is a complete reflection of our habits and lifestyle. And if in Western countries living in cottages is normal for city dwellers, then we still spend most of our lives in a city apartment. Its area is much more compact than the size of a country house. Therefore, with the landscaping option, phytopictures and phytomodules most often come first in terms of practicality and ease of use. These are small portable phytowalls that do not require mandatory watering from the water supply and input into the sewerage system.
In addition, creating a phytowall with your own hands is much faster and easier if you make it in the form of a practical, beautiful phytomodule, and not a giant wall of plants. And the worries about him will be completely different, although they will still be there. But how to save flowers during vacation? How to adapt to power outages? How to get the optimal balance of humidity in this room, in which you can breathe easily and there will be no unpleasant consequences? If you choose a competent wall design, then all these problems will be solved by themselves. It is recommended to order even the smallest phyto-paintings from professionals. Phytobuilder specialists have accumulated vast experience in the design and operation of green walls; they can work out the conditions of any specific apartment and best solve the issue of the longevity of your flowers.
But, of course, we are more interested in the homemade method. So, phytowalls can be of any size and placed in any place, including dimly lit ones. This module looks impressive right on the desktop. A furniture wall can also be considered as an option for placing a phyto-picture, but there any system with water is extremely undesirable, because wood can easily warp from moisture, even from simple splashes during watering. You can also place the “wall” in the recess of a brick or concrete wall, but you will have to protect the walls near the niche from splashes.
In a townhouse or country cottage you can arrange many of the most interesting options for phytowalls. But creating a vertical garden using individual lighting will become comfortable even in rooms without windows. Or you can decorate the front wall of the house with such a green carpet. As an example, the following simple but worthwhile ideas for constructing a phytowall can be used, allowing for any modifications to your own taste.
A living wall with stationary variations is constructed from four plastic gutters, fasteners and end caps for them, two wooden blocks two meters long, dowels and screws, a ruler, a pencil, a handsaw and a drill. A gutter that is too long is cut with a hand saw to the required size, and two holes are drilled from the bottom in each resulting section to drain the water remaining after watering. Then the slats are vertically fixed on the wall at a distance of half a meter from each other. It is important to take into account the height of the plants used when marking the position of individual tiers. According to the markings, end caps are attached to the slats, then the previously assembled gutters are inserted into them. You can place plants in this phytowall in two ways: attach flower pots on tiers or plant seedlings directly inside the trench with soil.
You can also make a mobile method using a wooden pallet (pallet), a piece of burlap, durable garden film, a furniture stapler, scissors and universal primer. The burlap is attached to the inside of the pallet with a stapler at intervals of 5 centimeters. Then the pallet is wrapped on the back side with film, stapled on three sides. The structure is turned over with the free end up, through which it is filled with soil throughout the entire internal volume. Small cuts are made across the entire area of the burlap. Seeds are sown in the ground or seedlings are planted. First you need to leave the picture lying horizontally, and when all the plants have sprung up and taken root, you can turn it over vertically. It will be necessary to add soil to the free edges and plant higher plants there.
If you are looking for a simple way to make a phytowall, you can make a convenient system in which the plants are directed either up or down. These can be varieties of climbing plants with thin stems, planted in no more than two rows. And as trays, it is very convenient to use not polypropylene sewer pipes, but “cable channels” made of plastic with a cross-section of more than ten centimeters, with the help of which the solution drainage system is installed much more reliably and easier than on round pipes.
The phytowall can be installed in almost any room with a household electrical outlet. And designs made by hand for specific interior conditions can have any convenient shapes and sizes. To prevent the wall from becoming damp, the phyto-painting should not be made close to the wall, but should leave a gap of about 5 centimeters for ventilation. The plant substrate usually has a certain acid-base environment, which is not conducive to the reproduction of any insects.
According to the description of biologist Patrick Blank, it is better to make such a structure thin and light, using a metal frame mounted on the wall as the basis. Plastic frames are screwed into it, holding thin, super-porous polyamide plates, which form something like felt. Plant roots take root in this material. Plants in vertical gardens are implanted and seeded. This wall will need to be able to not only be installed, but also painstakingly nurtured. And dozens of plants interspersed per square meter of this composition will help create amazing vertical relief landscapes, reminiscent of real tropics and jungles, as our cities are often referred to in an allegorical sense.
A living wall is built with your own hands from a network of tubes hidden behind plastic, and through them a nutrient biosolution is supplied, which contains mineral components important for the development of plants. Polymer felt absorbs this mixture due to its capillary properties. But the wall, covered with such a living decoration, is not moistened thanks to the air cushion formed due to the optimal gap. Blank also advises not to use soil in the structure, but simply to provide the plants with the necessary substances.
By the way, it was Blank who was the founder in this matter. His first living wall was built by him back in the late eighties, and since then similar creations of Patrick have decorated many dozens of buildings. Moreover, these gardens were used both outside and inside buildings, making the walls of hotels, administrative buildings, shops, and headquarters of various companies unique.
In order for a phytowall in an apartment, built and installed with your own hands, to acquire a lively and vibrant appearance, you need to be able to choose the right plants for it. Moreover, these should not be flowers with a heavy root system. For a small-sized painting, it is better to choose plants that grow in a small volume of soil, are drought-resistant, do not require excessive care, and have small roots like succulents, sedum, and echeveria. In a shaded room, different types of bromeliad small-leaved ferns, calathea or begonias are suitable. Annual and biennial climbing plants such as sweet peas, kobeya, morning glory and low-growing flowers (pansies) will feel great in a vertical garden. If you wish, you can turn such a wall into a herbal bed by planting your favorite herbs in it, such as thyme, mint, lemon balm, or simply fragrant strawberries! It is important to approach the choice of plants with all seriousness and attention, so as not to redo the picture later. It is better to combine plants for a phytowall into one composition that have the same care conditions, growth rate and the same species. Not all popular plants can meet these goals. For example, tall plants that form trunks have no place in a vertical garden. But there are exceptions to this list. The same Godseff's dracaena, which became the “black sheep” among the dracaenas as a low bush with wide leaves, ovoid and polka-dot, will fit very harmoniously into the phytopicture. For this purpose, you can take a closer look at the ficus pumila, which will also fit perfectly into the wall. The choice is determined by the preferences of the creator and the size of the walls and the painting itself. You can also combine flowering vegetation and succulents. Such a green island on a table or wall will look simply amazing, will always attract attention and will generally become the pride of its owner.
Many people who like to be original recommend using early-ripening, low-growing, small-fruited, shade-tolerant tomatoes for such paintings, the fruits of which are only about 30 grams. Seeds of these varieties can be easily found in relevant stores. For example, low-growing cherry tomatoes are very popular. It is advisable to select varieties that ripen no more than 80 days after sowing the seeds. Information about this can be found on the seed packet. The main plants for phytopictures in the form of an aquarium are ferns, chlorophytums, and scindapsus. They can be placed in a kind of containers, the sides of which and the slats under the plants are made of wood. For your home, you can make a kind of pool with a width of only about 30 centimeters. This method of growing will provide moisture to the plants, and the bottom can be lined with something like aquatic cyperus and ferns. When watering plants, excess water will end up in the same aquarium. In general, it’s convenient to look after the plants, and the whole house will sparkle with bright tones and colors.
But a living wall needs special proper care. One of the areas of this care is pinching plants. This is important so that the same ficus pumila, tradescantia and scindapsus do not grow. Flowering plants, such as impatiens and spathiphyllums, need to remove faded areas. It is also important to replace plants that are diseased or have lost their decorative appearance, and to replenish the supply of nutrient solutions for watering. If you did not order an automatic watering system, you will have to spend time watering each individual plant manually. It is necessary to provide the required level of light. If you purchase a professional system, plant care will be provided without problems, as will long-term service of the equipment. If the indoor air is too dry, you can periodically spray the plants. The advantage of group planting is that the general humidity around it will always be high. The phytowall also has other advantages: plants collected in one place make caring for them much easier, and automatic devices completely take care of nutrition and watering. All that remains is to monitor the serviceability of the equipment. Drip irrigation devices are sold in many retail outlets, including online stores. Such devices are unobtrusive in appearance, do not spoil the interior, and the lighting works over large areas. But still, it is more appropriate to create such phyto-masterpieces in private country houses, specially designed so that the space with plants on a closed veranda is illuminated as in a greenhouse with large windows that partially extend to the ceiling.
A do-it-yourself living wall is not yet a very familiar, but quite promising, homemade option for us. But abroad, such walls are an integral part of urban landscapes and individual interiors. They are installed in beauty salons and restaurants, schools and offices, country houses and city apartments. Scientists prove that such decorative elements improve the air of cities and make it suitable for humans. And our Kulibins can only roll up their sleeves and build such inclusions of life on the soulless concrete of city walls.
