The Green Wall Learning More about Vertical Gardening

Book excerpt: Table of Contents Introduction Benefits of Green Walls Different Paneling Structures Loose Medium Coir Mat/Felt Mat Medium Polyurethane Sheet Medium Structural Mediums Hanging Containers Shoe Holder Racks How to Make a Trellis Using Moss and Coco fiber Best Plant Choices Self Watering Planters How to Make a Self Watering Planter – Subirrigation Planter Water Circulation in Green Walls Final Tips for Green Wall Planting Hydroponics Conclusion Author Bio Publisher Introduction 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. In ancient times, it is said that one of the seven greater ancient wonders of the World, the Hanging Gardens of Nineveh – absolutely not Babylon, such a site never existed at all – were made of a number of plants hanging down walls in different stages on a pyramid like ziggurat structure. As this was totally plain and desert area, one would wonder where the water came from to water all those plants? According to historians, water systems brought water down from the mountains and channels were cut into rows, so the water could go straight into the plant beds. I would not be surprised if a number of these plants were grown in water, as in modern-day hydroponics. Because what goes around comes around, and I am certain that the gardeners would have looked at other mediums in which they could plant plants, apart from soil. We are so used to seeing flowerbeds, spreading all over the land, horizontally, that we have not bothered much about vertical gardening. That is because instinctively our minds are set to just one way of gardening, since childhood. Make a hole in the ground, place the plant in it, stamp the soil down until the plant is firm, moisturize the soil, and then keep caring for your plant until you get an excellent harvest.