Each person is constantly striving to decorate his life, trying to make a touch of beauty and freshness in everyday life. The original decision of the modern world was vertical gardens - green oases grown on a limited area. They can be placed both in the open air, decorating the facade of the building, and in your favorite room, filling it with a piece of nature.
Vertical gardens: a new direction of art to surround yourself with beautiful
What could be better than the green wall into which the dark-gray facade of the city building is turned? Or a restaurant, on the walls of which there is a picturesque garden, causing sincere admiration of visitors? Or a balcony revived with graceful natural colors? Or…?
Vertical gardens (photo above), a huge number of accommodation options, can be "settled" not only in a favorite place, but also in your own home, and in such an interesting landscaping solution there are only advantages:
- decorative improvement of the aesthetic appearance of the structure completely or its specific details;
- a multiple increase in the area of landscaping;
- compactness and the ability to place at hand a huge amount of flowering greens;
- protection of the room from external factors: overheating, moisture, street noise, dust, ultraviolet radiation;
- unlimited possibilities of design when planning and shaping natural beauty;
- microclimate improvement and oxygen enrichment;
- smoothing of existing external defects of the structure;
- creation of a new ecological space for planted plants.
Green garden on the wall: is it possible?
What is a vertical garden? This is a perpendicular arrangement, in which a variety of flowers and plants are planted. It is attached to the walls, thus creating a certain geometric shape and originally dividing the territory into certain zones.
Such an unusual design idea attracts a lot of attention and causes a desire to be in this environment. Green walls, undemanding to technical conditions, can be used both temporarily and permanently.
The history of the appearance of vertical gardens
The founder of the art-natural innovation is the French designer and botanist Patrick Blanc, who revealed a huge number of tropical plants that can grow vertically, in a small amount of soil and even with a lack of lighting. Such a discovery, which prompted the “master of green decisions” to plant plants on any desired plane, allows you to create gorgeous paintings from plants that change seasonally. This invention of the last century, which has turned into the art of forming vertical flower beds and lawns, is effectively used on building facades, columns, in interiors and as “living” walls.
The most famous gardens on the walls
The largest vertical garden in the world is Tree House (Singapore), covering an area of 2289 square meters. meters on the 24-story building of the condominium of City Developments Limited (CDL) - one of the largest developers in Asia and Singapore. The green walls of the building, in addition to their presentable appearance, provide the expected savings in energy (more than 2.4 million kWh per year) and water (about 30 thousand cubic meters per year). In addition, the ingress of harmful substances from the street into residential premises located in the heart of Singapore is reduced.
Equally impressive with its green composition is the Fjordaliso shopping center (Rozzano, Italy), listed in the Guinness Book of Records. The largest vertical garden in the world is located on an area of 1263 square meters. meter; a huge composition in total consists of 44,000 plants. This garden was invented and embodied in reality by the architect Francesco Bollani, who spent a year on growing plants in the greenhouse and 90 days on their facade planting, reminiscent of the assembly of a giant designer.
Madrid also boasts its vertical garden, which is 24 meters high and 19 meters long.
Do-it-yourself green beauty? Easy!
Perhaps looking at such beauty (simple and at the same time complex), you will want to try to make a vertical garden with your own hands. This process does not present difficulties. Most likely, he will enjoy joining the beautiful. Plants can be planted in plastic or metal boxes, which are then collected in sections of various heights and widths according to the type of constructor. You can use textile pockets for planting a vertical garden.
The main element of the whole composition is the design, created by the type of picture frame, which can be made from scratch, and you can pick up unnecessary objects (wooden pallets, old drawers or unnecessary frames) for it.
Structural strength is an important factor for a vertical garden.
The manufactured frame needs to be put in order (so to speak, ennobled), boards can be attached to its front side with nails to prevent plants from falling. Then you need to plant flowers in the structure, and then fix the finished garden on the wall.
When creating a vertical garden with your own hands, you should pay attention to such factors as:
- construction installation method;
- its approximate weight;
- the level of illumination of the location of the man-made garden.
The systems of vertical gardens can be different, ranging from fabric bags filled with soil, to drawers sections. Since watering a vertical garden is problematic, most systems are equipped with water tanks or connected to a water supply for automatic drip irrigation, in which water and fertilizers are fed through hoses installed in the upper part of the structure.
Excess fluid accumulates in containers located at the bottom of the structure or walls, and then is pumped up to the next watering station.
Selection of plants for an unusual garden
Vertical gardening does not require planting seeds and long waiting for the first shoots. You can plant seedlings, and you need to do this tightly enough to get a solid carpet.
Succulents are ideal for a vertical garden - absolutely unpretentious evergreens, occupying a small space and not requiring abundant watering. You can also stop your choice on lichens, mosses, alpine flowers, ground cover plants, simply created by nature for such purposes. The most adapted to temperature fluctuations and precipitation, they quickly and easily fill empty spaces, giving the green composition a solid original background.
A vertical garden can be built in a room, however, here it is worth paying attention to the selection of plants, because not every one of them easily tolerates room temperature. The ideal solution would be evergreen ferns or plants with large leaves (monstera, philodendron, dwarf ficus). You can combine plants with different heights and colors, or you can create a monochrome picture, focusing only on some representatives of the flora. To create a green wall, a selection of hardy plants that grow well in partial shade is required. Sometimes, in order not to depend on daylight, vertical gardens are supplemented with lamps.
The subtleties of caring for a vertical garden
Creating a vertical garden with your own hands, plants should be selected with similar care requirements, so as not to subsequently take care of each separately.
An unusual flowerbed with several species of inhabitants landed in it can be located in any suitable place (with a great desire - even on the ceiling). The main thing is to choose the right plants with similar conditions of detention.
Caring for the greenery growing in an unusual garden is similar to the usual care of plants and includes regular cleaning of the system, pruning of plants and checking for pests. In spring and autumn, mandatory feeding of plants is required, during flowering - the removal of dried inflorescences and excess shoots.
A green novelty in every home!
Vertical gardens, attractive, unique, providing a pleasant microclimate, will fill any room with green natural colors, making it richer and richer. In the summer, the man-made miracle keeps you cool, in the winter, it keeps warm.
Green walls reduce temperature fluctuations, providing higher humidity. They enrich the room with oxygen, filtering the harmful substances contained in it. The greenery of the vertical garden calms the nervous system and acts relaxingly, so everyone is worth adding an extraordinarily wonderful note of nature to their everyday life!